NEWPORT BEACH (courtesy Orange County Register) – After a more than 13-hour marathon meeting of the California Coastal Commission, a room packed with some 100 demonstrators exploded in cheers Wednesday when commissioners voted to deny a proposed development in Newport Beach on Banning Ranch, an oil field covered in vernal pools, scrub and grassland and home to endangered species.
“This is a project we have to get right,” said Commissioner Mary Shallenberger. “We’ve heard this is the only intact coastal bluff ecosystem in Southern California. It is the largest concentration of endangered and threatened species in Orange County. … You can’t make a mistake with that and turn back when you find you haven’t had it quite right. If we don’t get it right, things will be lost forever.”
The commission’s vote of 9 to 1 to deny the proposed development halts a 20-year battle between preservationists and developers – if only for a while. Developers can resubmit another set of substantially different plans to the commission in six months with a fee of at least $250,000.
Earlier in the day, project managers for the proposed housing and retail project at Banning Ranch described the latest recommendation from the California Coastal Commission staff for Banning Ranch as an illegal land grab.
The agency’s leader, Jack Ainsworth, however, urged commissioners to consider the environmental impact of a big development on the property.
Those conflicting views played out as hundreds of witnesses, citizens and others attended the California Coastal Commission hearing in Newport Beach.
At stake: what development, if any, should be allowed on the 401-acre Banning Ranch.
OPPOSING PLANS
After more than 12 hours of public comment and presentations, the debate over Banning Ranch among commissioners was continuing late Wednesday, with heated discussion among commissioners, staff and experts. At one point, Commissioner Mark Vargas and staff members read dueling portions of the same book on threatened species and Vargas snapped at leading raptor expert Peter Bloom to audible gasps in the audience. Vargas later apologized.
Earlier this year, landowners submitted a plan to turn the oil field into a neighborhood with nearly 900 homes and condominiums, a hotel and shopping – and a 329-acre nature park.
This month, scientists and other staff from the Coastal Commission countered with a recommendation for a much-smaller project, one with about 500 homes and more room for animals and habitat.
That proposal would essentially kill the project, according to representatives from the landowners, leaving the land environmentally degraded and closed to the public.
Conservationists want no development on the land. They hope to buy the parcel and preserve it as a natural space for dwindling species, such as burrowing owls and gnatcatchers, and rare ecosystems, including vernal pools.
HEATED DEBATE
More than 400 people turned up Wednesday and signed on to speak at the hearing, which included emotional testimony from people representing all sides of the debate.
Ainsworth, head of the commission staff, told the hearing that he made a promise when he took over this year from the agency’s longstanding leader, Charles Lester.
“That promise would be our recommendations are based on facts, sound science and the law, and that’s what this recommendation is,” Ainsworth, acting executive director of the Coastal Commission, said of the staff’s suggestion that developers further scale back the project. “It is critically important we get it right because we may not get a second chance.”
Banning Ranch officials countered, saying much of the land designated as environmentally sensitive is ravaged by oil drilling. What’s more, they argue that the staff’s report oversteps the boundaries of the California Coastal Act, the law that created the commission.
“The staff report as reported this morning would result in the status quo, no habitat restoration, no public access,” said Mike Mohler, Newport Banning Ranch senior project manager. “You’ve all seen the property. It’s a highly degraded oil site with a lot of potential. … We ask you to remove the gate, remove the fence.”
ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE
The land stretches from near the Santa Ana River to Pacific Coast Highway, blocks from the beach in West Newport Beach, and touches Costa Mesa and Newport Beach to the east. The developer’s plans call for 895 dwellings, 45,000 square feet of shopping and retail space, a 20-bed hostel and a 75-room resort. The company also would spend about $55 million to restore much of the remainder of the land as a public park.
The mesas, grassland and scrub on the land are home to rare vegetation and animal species. Among the birds that frequent the site are the threatened and sensitive California gnatcatcher and burrowing owl. The California Coastal Commission staff biologists and scientists found that 219 acres of the land qualify as environmentally sensitive.
One point of contention between conservationists and developers is when the landowners would need to perform remediation and environmental restoration. The commission staff contends that large chunks of concrete broken up on the land need to be cleaned up, but developers have said much of the cleanup would only begin when development can begin.
‘SAVE BANNING RANCH’
Of the nine indigenous communities with ties to the land, two have signed off on the project proposed by Newport Banning Ranch while seven others have opposed or shown concern with the plan, staff told commissioners Wednesday.
A packed Newport Beach City Council chambers overflowed with protesters against and in favor of development, wearing competing colors. Those against development held green signs that read “Save Banning Ranch.” People outside the hall held signs with messages such as “Why should money win!?” “People count” and “Give a hoot – Save Banning Ranch.”
By contrast, people in favor of development wore blue shirts that read “Clean Restore Open” and blue, trucker-style hats that read “Open.”
The passion for Banning Ranch stretched into the city’s civic center where protesters held signs up to the glass and a duo playing a flute and a string instrument could be heard from inside the council chambers.
Oil was discovered on Banning Ranch in the 1920s, and production of oil and gas has continued since the early 1940s. Over the decades, 400 million barrels of oil have been extracted there. Developers have said fracking is not being considered. West Newport Oil operates the oil wells on the land and is pursuing expansion with the Coastal Commission in a separate action before the commission, staff said Wednesday – a development met with gasps of surprise from the audience.
In 1997 the landowners proposed partnering with a developer to build 1,750 homes, but the builder later bowed out of the project. In 2012 the city of Newport Beach approved a 1,375-home plan on the land, which was met with a lawsuit from environmental group Banning Ranch Conservancy that alleged the city violated its general plan. That suit is pending.
VOICES:
“This is a project we have to get right. We’ve heard this is the only intact coastal bluff ecosystem in Southern California. It is the largest concentration of endangered and threatened species in Orange County. … If we don’t get it right, things will be lost forever.”
– Coastal Commissioner Mary Shallenberger