City to decide ranch’s future

The fate of Banning Ranch, an undeveloped 400-acre coastal area, is now in the hands of Newport Beach.

Newport Banning Ranch LLC, the owner of the land, has submitted to the city a plan to develop 1,375 homes, a hotel and retail stores on the bluffs overlooking the Balboa Peninsula.

“If it were approved, it would codify everything we’ve warned we would do on the project,” said Mike Mohler, the project manager.

Meanwhile, residents opposing the development are ramping up their efforts to get the land designated a nature preserve, where they say locals could hike and bike through the coastal sage while enjoying views of the ocean.

Members of the main opposition group, Save the Banning Ranch Task Force, met with the West Newport Beach homeowners association Wednesday night at City Hall to present their vision for the land.

“The only thing that has changed since they submitted the plan is that they made it official. The threat to take the last piece of potential park land is real,” Kevin Nelson, an anti-development activist, said.

Nelson spent part of his Wednesday afternoon walking around the Peninsula, going door to door and trying to get people to attend the meeting that night. He said the group, which was recently designated a nonprofit, sought state and local funds, as well as private donations, to try and purchase the land from Newport Banning Ranch LLC.

And it will have some time to raise those funds. Under the city’s general plan, the developer is required to postpone its development and entertain offers on the property from those seeking to make it a nature preserve. So far, the amount of time that the developer must wait has not been agreed upon between the city and the owner, but it will likely be at least two or three years, according to Newport Beach Planning Director David Lepo.

“Under the general plan, the residents of Newport Beach wanted to be assured that before Banning Ranch proceeded with development, there was some opportunity for residents to get together and try to buy it,” Lepo said.

The developers think it’s unlikely that the task force will be able to come up with the amount of money needed to buy the land, which they value at more than $200 million. In addition to being prime ocean-view property, the land has long been used to drill oil, and remnants from previous and current drilling will have to be carefully removed if the area is to become a public open space, which costs money.

The task force says the company is overestimating the land value in an attempt to extort money from possible buyers. Newport Beach will do a separate appraisal to try and reconcile the parties and determine the feasibility of a group stepping up and buying the property to save as open space.

“I’m hopeful they can do it, but it’s going to be a lot of money, and money is not easily attainable these days,” said Newport Beach Councilman Keith Curry.

If the city’s appraisal ends up significantly lower than the property owner’s appraisal, and the discrepancy is enough to be a deal-breaker for a nonprofit that wanted to buy the land, then a third, independent appraisal would be done, according to Lepo.

The money would have to come from an organization such as the Save the Banning Ranch Task Force because the city is not considering contributing its own funds to the effort.

Before a development is approved, the Newport Beach planning staff will have to look through the approximately 12-inch-thick document, examining the environmental impact reports and checking every detail of the proposal. The California Coastal Commission will also have a say.

All told, the process could take more than three years, Lepo said.

“The city controls the pace from here on out,” Mohler said. “The plan is submitted as we had warned it would be. There are no surprises and no retreats from the commitments we’ve made to the public.”

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].