Out of the Blue: How can anyone object to The Ranch, a meritorious project

One would have thought that Mark Fudge would be ecstatic over Mark Christy’s purchase of, and plans for, the Aliso Creek Resort property known as The Ranch at Laguna Beach.

After all, Fudge owns the Halliburton “Hangover” House, a historic house that directly overlooks the golf course, so he has a prime stake in keeping his view corridors pristine and bucolic.

Same with Penny Elia, the Sierra Club representative who was fiercely opposed to the previous owners’ invasive plan to scar the canyon hills with luxury homes, an 18-hole golf course and a multistory hotel.

But Fudge appealed the Laguna Beach Planning Commission’s approval of the project to the California Coastal Commission, which is now investigating, and Elia also has contacted the commission with concerns about Christy’s project.

With Christy, we have a longtime local with a strong sensibility about the environmental sensitivity of the canyon — someone who grew up here and learned to golf on the course with his dad, and played countless rounds with his buddy and mentor Hobie Alter.

In fact, former longtime owner Vi Brown apparently told Alter that he would get the first look if Brown ever decided to sell, because Alter loved the property and had the integrity and values to maintain its character and charm.

Instead, the Athens Group bought it in 2004, couldn’t get traction on its redevelopment plan and finally decided to dump it. In a beautiful twist of fate, the perfect buyer came along in Christy, ensuring the dream of Brown, Alter and pretty much the whole community to maintain the property’s charm for at least another generation.

I can think of no better steward than Christy, who has subordinated the potential profitability of the extensive open space by limiting the project to the existing footprint.

How could Fudge possibly find fault with a project to restore the mid-century Aliso Creek Inn to its original luster by bringing the decaying buildings up to code, modernizing the facility and opening it to the community once again? It had lain fallow for decades while the Athens Group weighed its options through the recession.

Let’s look at the facts. Christy was one of the founding members of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy board. He has consulted with Laguna’s leading environmentalists on this project. He has made a substantial investment restoring the property and making it as sustainable as possible.

He plans to use reclaimed water for irrigation, upgrade existing drains to include catch basins to minimize the impact to the creek, use a primarily native, low-irrigation plant pallet, increase the permeable (natural draining) area by roughly 7,000 feet, install energy-efficient LED lighting throughout the property, and increase energy efficiency with dual-glazed windows and rigid roof insulation.

He took landscape architect and Village Laguna preservationist Ann Christoph on a tour of the property before doing any tree trimming to get her blessing, and all of the non-creek bedwork was done under the supervision of Gilbert Briseno, who was mentored by legendary environmental advocate Fred Lang.

So why does Fudge persist in halting an environmentally sensitive project that will maintain his pristine views?

He even said publicly at a Planning Commission meeting, “The project looks fine to me,” and wished Christy and his team “the very best of luck with this project.”

He does bring up one specific issue that seems to be the crux of the appeal — the grove of eucalyptus trees in the back of the property that were slated to be thinned out to create an open-air event space. He suggested making them heritage trees, despite the fact that eucalyptus are invasive and non-native.

Still, Christy removed only one of them and left a canopy of trees to envelop this amazingly serene setting deep in the canyon, restoring what was formerly a heavy-equipment junkyard and dump site. What a fabulous transformation and use.

Regardless, Fudge seems to be punishing the city because he felt his request for further environmental study was not heard.

I tried to reach him and Elia for comment but was unsuccessful.

It is unclear what Elia’s motivations are. Her stated mission at the Sierra Club is to “protect and preserve all unprotected acreage and waterways currently being eyed for development of estates, timeshares, a golf resort and golf resort amenities.” Hello? Mission accomplished! It’s time to pop the bubbly.

I’d like to remind Elia and Fudge that the residents of this town are collateral damage. No individual should have the right to subvert the will of our elected officials, who were voted in by democratic process, or our hard-working volunteer commissioners and city staff.

This campaign hurts everyone in town. Downtown is where the tourists go. But The Ranch is our special haven, without question the most beautiful natural setting in Laguna. And Christy has already made it more beautiful.

Christy has had to halt construction and lay off good people. It has been financially devastating to his family and his investors. He hasn’t been able to get on the Coastal Commission agenda because of the usual bureaucracy, and has no idea how long it will take before he can get a hearing, be adjudicated and return to restoration. But I am confident good karma will prevail.

I’ll leave you with these final words. Christy wrote them in his impassioned plea to the coastal commissioners, urging them to see the project for themselves before judging the baseless appeal:

“Our project is an oasis of Laguna soul and represents an aesthetic and environmental windfall that visitors will cherish and locals describe as ‘an answer to Laguna’s prayers.’ We have a decades-overdue, environmentally correct and widely supported project with nothing to hide.”

Think they get it? Let’s all hope so.

BILLY FRIED is the chief paddling officer of La Vida Laguna and member of the board of Transition Laguna. He can be reached at billy@lavidalaguna.com.