Mailbag: Make your voice heard on Banning Ranch project

Make your voice heard on Banning Ranch project

What a travesty that the Newport Beach City Council unanimously approved a giveaway to Shell and Exxon (whose subsidiary Aera Energy owns about half of Newport Banning Ranch) and others in the form of allowing them to develop a project that will bury Newport-Mesa in traffic, possibly expose the public to oil field contamination and cause pollution.

Moreover, it is unbelievably misguided to give the OK to dense development that will markedly increase water use when we are in the worst drought of our generation and having to limit water consumption.

The current City Council should align itself with what is right for the residents and the environment, not just the special interests, and rescind, if possible, the permission granted to these developers. We can only hope that the Coastal Commission acts as a rational steward of our coastline and denies approval of this mammoth project.

Residents can find more information at saveourcoastnow.org and facebook.com/QualityOfLifeCoalition. Buses will be transporting the public from Newport Beach to the Coastal Commission meeting in Long Beach City Hall on Oct. 7 or Oct. 8 (to be announced).

Transportation is free. Reserve a bus seat at banningpledge.com/longbeach/.

Now is the time for us to save the last remaining undeveloped parcel in Orange County and prevent 15,000 more daily trips on our roads, as well as preserve scarce water resources and stop more air and water pollution before it happens.

Portia Weiss

Newport Beach