University of California, Irvine, Langson Library

UC Irvine's Special Collections and Archives (SCA) houses the university’s collections of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, ephemera, born-digital files, and other unique materials. Our holdings include university archives, critical theory, performing arts, political literature, and a growing collection of artists’ books. In the Orange County & Southeast Asian Archive (OC&SEAA) Center, we lead a community-focused effort to preserve and catalog our local culture. We welcome students, faculty, independent researchers, and community members to visit us on the fifth floor of Langson Library or in the OC&SEAA Center.

Historical Note

In the 1960s, after preparing the legal groundwork for over a decade, the Irvine Company (Orange County, California) proposed a major land swap with the County of Orange. The proposal was unanimously approved by the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 1965. The project, involving an exchange of publicly owned tidelands on the Upper Newport Bay in Orange County for Irvine Company-owned blufflands, was intended to pave the way for the development of a marina, housing developments, and recreational facilities along the Upper Newport Bay shoreline.

Though environmental activism was relatively unknown at the time, the plan quickly met with resistance from local residents. Several grassroots environmental groups were formed and in 1967 the Friends of the Newport Bay (FONB), the most vocal and instrumental group, held its first meeting. Local Newport Beach residents J. Frank and Frances Robinson were instrumental in forming FONB. The subsequent interest and reporting by local and state media raised public awareness and directed attention to controversial elements of the transaction.

In 1969, as a result of this new awareness, six Newport Beach residents, led by the Robinsons, filed as intervenors in a friendly lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the trade, halt the project, and reverse the decisions made by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. The ongoing suits and their media coverage resulted in increasing public demand for the retention of Upper Newport Bay land for public usage. Through a combination of political and legal actions the land exchange was canceled in 1971. In 1974 the idea for the Upper Bay Reserve plan won federal approval and in 1975, ten years after the initial land exchange proposal, the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve was dedicated.

Chronology

• 1965: Formal agreement is signed between Orange County and Irvine Co. for the exchange of privately held bluff lands for publicly held tide lands in order to facilitate residential development of Upper Newport Bay.
• 1967: State Lands Commission gives its endorsement to land exchange.
• 1967: Friends of Newport Bay is formed.
• 1969: Exchange is first tested in court. Frances and Frank Robinson and four other Newport Beach homeowners file as intervenors.
• 1969: Santa Barbara oil spill raises public awareness about environmental issues.
• 1970: Retention of Upper Newport Bay for public park is urged.
• 1971: New Board of Supervisors votes to cancel the Upper Newport Bay land exchange agreement between Orange County and the Irvine Company.
• 1973: Upper Bay land trade is held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of California.
• 1973: Irvine Company decides not to appeal ruling, thus effectively giving up on its earlier development plans, and in addition, agrees to sell its bluff lands for a wildlife preserve.
• 1974: Plans for a preserve in the Upper Bay win federal approval.
• 1975: Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve is dedicated.

From the guide to the Collection on Upper Newport Bay, circa 1949-1997, (University of California, Irvine. Library. Special Collections and Archives.)