City receives funds for park land
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Barbara Diamond
Two more pieces will be added to the jigsaw puzzle of parcels that
makes up the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.
The California Coastal Conservancy approved on Thursday an
$800,000 allocation to the city for the purchase of the Wainwright
and Trinity properties in Laguna Canyon.
“You people in the audience are witnessing an historic event,”
said acting conservancy Chair Doug Bosco. “We are one of the only
agencies in the state still spending money.”
The $800,000 allocation will come out of the Proposition 12 funds
approved in 2000 by the voters, $12.5 million of which was earmarked
to “acquire land needed to connect important coastal watershed and
scenic areas in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.”
The 36-acre Trinity and 34-acre Wainwright parcels are both
located in the Laguna Canyon Creek watershed, on the inland side of
Laguna Canyon Road. They provide critical trail connections to the
adjoining 17,000-acre South Coast Wilderness system of parks and
preserves.
“Today reflects a dream that a few years ago we couldn’t have
imagined,” said Michael Pinto, founder and president of the Laguna
Canyon Foundation.
The foundation partnered with the city and the Trust for Public
Lands in applying for the allocation to buy the two parcels approved
at the conservancy meeting held in Laguna Beach. The parcels will be
leased to the county.
Conservancy staff member Deborah Ruddock recommended approval of
the allocation.
“The important message here is completing connections in the South
Coast Wilderness,” said Ruddock, project manager responsible for the
conservancy’s role in Laguna Coast acquisitions.
Ruddock said she had learned only on Wednesday that Caltrans is
redesigning Laguna Canyon Road to include underpasses that allow
wildlife to move east to west to the coast.
“This is important,” she said. “This is a happening place.”
The conservancy also allocated $100,000 to the foundation to
facilitate future acquisitions.
“If we don’t give them the money, conservancy staff will have to
do the work,” Ruddock said.
The foundation, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to preserving,
protecting and enhancing Southern California’s second largest coastal
canyon wilderness, was originally created to help acquire land in
Laguna Canyon slated for dense development.
Pinto expressed thanks to the marchers who publicized the city’s
desire to keep the canyon wild and the residents who taxed themselves
to buy some of the Irvine Co. land owned by Donald Bren.
“We couldn’t raise the money for the fifth option, but something
happened last year,” Pinto said. “Donald Bren gave it to us, free,
gratis.”
The gift freed up Proposition 12 money earmarked for the fifth
parcel, which now can be used to purchase other parcels.
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