LOS ANGELES — The nonprofit Trust for Public Land on Friday completed the purchase of an oil field that sits atop the coastal bluffs of Newport Beach, guaranteeing the property will be cleaned up and preserved as open space.
The 384-acre Banning Ranch property, whose future was at the center of an intense decadeslong fight in Orange County, is considered the last piece of undeveloped coastal real estate left in Southern California.
For years, developers had eyed the multimillion-dollar swath of land — with its sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean — as a prime location for homes, shopping and, at one point, a boutique hotel. But conservationists saw an opportunity for rare open space in a county of nearly 3.2 million people.
