Banning Ranch Project Gets Another 90 Days

The California Coastal Commission today granted a one-time 90-day extension to backers of a redevelopment plan for the 401-acre Newport Beach Banning Ranch property, the last large privately owned parcel of land along the coast in Southern California.

The commission was supposed to discuss approval of the property.

The site of oil production since the 1940s and through its peak in the early 1980s, the Banning Ranch proposal includes 1,375 residential units, a 75- room resort hotel with an eight- to 10-bed hostel, 75,000 square feet of commercial and retail business, several parks, a public trail network and a 261- acre nature preserve, according to the commission’s staff report.

Opponents have blasted the proposal for being too intense, and instead called for the preservation of the land. Environmentalists have sued the city of Newport Beach over its approval of the development.

The Coastal Commission’s staff recommended rejection of the proposal. Charles Lester, the commission’s executive director, said the plan needs to be reworked.

“We don’t think the project can be approved consistent with the Coastal Act and more time is needed to get it right,” he told the panel during its meeting in Long Beach.

Hundreds of people attended the meeting, many holding signs reading “Save Banning Ranch” or “Uphold the Coastal Act.”

Chris Yelich, a principal with the Brooks Street development firm behind the project, insisted that adequate plans were in place to prepare the oil field for development, and that the project includes a large amount of open space.

“We’re only going to be developing less than 20 percent of the property and turning 80 percent of it into usable open space for the community,” he told ABC7 outside the meeting room.

Banning Ranch is bordered by the Santa Ana River, a wetlands restoration area, the Talbert Regional Park Nature Preserve and commercial and residential developments in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach and along Pacific Coast Highway.

About 271,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil would need to be removed from the site when the oil drilling is finished regardless of whether the development goes forward, the commission’s staff reported. The developers are pledging to remove more than 1.3 million cubic yards of polluted soil.

“Despite its history of oil development, the (Banning Ranch site) has an incredibly unique array of sensitive coastal species and habitats, including nesting habitat for the threatened California gnatcatcher, a very rare vernal pool system, and one of the few remaining significant areas of native grassland in the coastal zone,” the commission’s staff wrote in a report.

“A revised development plan for the property could acknowledge the unique habitat value that exists even with the past disturbance from oil production, and propose an intensity of use that is both economically viable and compatible with the resource values of the property,” according to the staff report.

-City News Service; map via SaveNewportBanningRanch.org