City receives funds for park land

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.