Newport council expected to nullify Banning Ranch approvals Tuesday
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The Newport Beach City Council is expected next week to reverse several approvals for the derailed Banning Ranch development.
The council will take up the court-ordered repeals when it meets Tuesday.
In 2012, the council — with different members — certified an environmental impact report and approval of a general plan, code amendments and a development agreement that at the time included 1,375 homes, a 75-room resort hotel and a 75,000-square-foot retail complex on part of ranch’s 401 acres of scrub and grasslands.
The project was later whittled down to 895 homes, a 75-room hotel, a 20-bed hostel and 45,100 square feet of retail space.
Except for the environmental report and the development agreement, all other approvals were not to take effect until the California Coastal Commission granted the project a coastal development permit, among other actions. The commission rejected the permit application in 2016 and again this year.
When the California Supreme Court ruled this year that Newport Beach had improperly approved the development, the Orange County Superior Court, under direction from the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal, ordered the city to vacate all Banning Ranch-related approvals.
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