We are a local group of concerned citizens that want to protect what's left of our open space and wildlife habitat. Our goal is to create awareness about a proposed massive urban development project that will ruin an important ecosystem on Banning Ranch. In addition, this will negatively impact the quality of life for surrounding neighborhoods.
Although not officially affiliated with any group, we support organizations such as The Banning Ranch Conservancy, The Banning Ranch Park and Preserve Force, Banning Ranch Defenders, and any other group that wants to do what they can to save this rare coastal habitat. We urge you to get involved. Donate to the Conservancy, write letters to your politicians, and vote for people that oppose development of the Banning Ranch property.
http://www.banningranchconservancy.org
http://taskforce.sierraclub.org/banningranch
http://www.banningranchdefenders.org
Contact Us
We are always happy to fill you in, and give perspective on this issue.
Call:
Kevin Nelson 949-631-0274 (answered as WebConCentral)
Email: info@savebanningranch.org
Why I am against development
Growing up in our incredible area in the late 50s and 60s I spent many days of my childhood riding my bike through uncrowded streets to play in many of the open fields around Costa Mesa and Newport. My friends and I regularly climbed a huge pine tree on the corner of Anaheim Av and 19th where the In-N-Out burger joint now stands.
With my family, I remember standing at night on the bluffs of Victoria/Hamilton St overlooking the vast darkness of the Santa Ana river plain. Except for the lights of the Huntington Beach power plant and a few street lights, it was black and quiet.
There were so many evenings when I would walk home from seeing a movie at the old Mesa theater at the early hours of 9-10pm, crossing Newport Blvd without having to look because there was almost no traffic.
In 7th grade, I took a few bike trips out to oneil park, then down laguna canyon road to PCH and back home. The most vivid part of the trip was near Culver and Barranca streets in what is now Irvine, riding quietly through an early Sunday morning through miles of orange groves. I passed many small farm houses and almost no cars, hands freezing on the handlebar grips.
But always it was our wonderful slice of ocean that kept me here. So I ended up as an avid wave rider spending countless hours bodysurfing at the 17th Point south of the pier and at the 50th St jetty. Probably 250 days a year spent in the water for so many years.
The experiences with nature locally led me to reach out further, exploring the enormous spaces of the west. The rich red rock of southern Utah, the wide and lonely valleys of central Nevada, the beautiful light and shadows of the east side of the Sierras, the distant curving horizons of the ocean from high on the ridges of Big Sur, the soft shade and ferns among giant time machines, called Redwoods.
Those places are magic. They taught me the intense value of the natural world, as they teach all who listen. Banning Ranch may be the place that kids growing up here in the year 2050 use to watch nature up close – to experience it every day, to see its constant changes, its phases, feel solitude amidst the constant din of cars and traffic.
I have watched so many of our local, semi-wild areas disappear over the last 30 years. Most of these areas stood out as places that should have been left alone. Places like the Newport Coast, the Castaways at the east end of 17th, the area surrounding Oneil Park, the orange groves of Irvine, and on and on. As I travel around So Cal now, the Santa Monica Mountains, Cleveland’s Saddleback peak, and the mountains east of San Diego are just about the only open lands left. Yet houses crawl incessantly up their flanks as well.
Yet at this late date with so little left, consideration for future generations still struggles to prevail over what we take for housing and commercial use. Where does it end? Which government official says enough? When do we say enough and strike the kind of balance that leaves future generations with a few remnants of what once was? Banning Ranch should be one of those remnants.
