LOS ANGELES — Sloping down a dusty hill toward the Upper Newport Bay, where recreational enthusiasts share a path that runs alongside the marshy water, is a chain-link fence that separates public land from a sprawling bay-view property.
But the entirety of the fenced-in area doesn't belong to homeowner Buck Johns, a wealthy energy executive and prominent Republican donor who sought to buy the plot from Orange County in 2019, a purchase that was ultimately denied.
Roughly a third of an acre is actually public parkland, and the space has become a hotbed of discourse in recent years as residents have decried blocked access amid allegations of political favoritism.
