On 10/4/14, the Sunday Daily Pilot ran a full-page ad by NBR LLC.

This is the ad in its entirety.

Exact Text of Letter in AdHi Neighbors,

Thank you again for the overwhelming support. The purpose of this letter is to provide an update on our project Newport Banning Ranch (NBR). We are continuing toward our goal of cleaning up the 401-acre oil field (located directly adjacent to Sunset Ridge Park at Pacific Coast Highway and Superior). The property in its current state is a fenced off oil field, covered with oil facilities and debris, with NO public access. One of the primary goals of the NBR team has been and continues to be the clean-up, restoration, public access and the creation of an amenity for coast and region. Our plan is to celebrate the biking, hiking and beach going ethos of our incredible coast, including:

Public Trails – more than 7 milesOpen Space – 260+ acres natural open space preserveCommunity Parks – more than 30 acresClean-up – Oil field abandoned and cleaned up, and lands restored. Orange Coast River Park – NBR open space brings to life long envisioned plan

Our detractors, claim they want to buy the property and turn the entire property into a limited-access area. They seek to accomplish this by asking the tax payers for hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase the site, clean it up and build their plan. Their ideas will only lead to delaying the clean up and risk further degradation of what should be a great coastal property.

Why would government officials ever appropriate hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to buy a property when, following our plan, the property will be cleaned up, improved and given back to the community? The truth is that this property will either be developed into more than 300 acres of public open space, paid for by 80 acres of development unanimously approved by the City of Newport Beach in 2012; or, it will remain a fenced off oil field indefinitely. NBR continues to work with the California Coastal Commission to process the Newport Banning Ranch plan.

We continue need your local support and will keep you informed on our progress. Our team really does believe we will save Banning Ranch. Please call our office and we will let you know how you can support our worthy cause.

www.NewportBanningRanch.com

Paragraph 3: NBR’S Letter to the Public

FOR THE RECORD: The Conservancy does not want to turn the site into a limited-access area. Our plan will create more access to the site, not less. We will not be putting homes, a hotel or commercial space on the land. Our plan calls for an Interpretive Center and public restrooms. No other buildings. Every available acre will be dedicated to open space. Our proposed coastal nature preserve and park will provide more access, more educational opportunities and more recreational space for the public. Only the oil facilities will be closed for safety reasons, as they will be under NBR’s plan.

“Our detractors, claim they want to buy the property and turn the entire property into a limited-access area. They seek to accomplish this by asking the tax payers for hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase the site, clean it up and build their plan. Their ideas will only lead to delaying the clean up and risk further degradation of what should be a great coastal property.”

“Our detractors, claim they want to buy the property and turn the entire property into a limited-access area. They seek to accomplish this by asking the tax payers for hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase the site, clean it up and build their plan. Their ideas will only lead to delaying the clean up and risk further degradation of what should be a great coastal property.”

FOR THE RECORD: The property changed ownership in 2006. Since then, according to the County Tax Assessor, it has an assessed value of $42 million. Even the City understands that the land isn’t valued at hundred of millions, based on their 2008 consultative price study. The Conservancy has no plan to ask tax payers for acquisition money. It won’t be necessary. The Measure M2 Freeway Environmental Mitigation Program allocates funds to acquire land and fund habitat restoration projects. Acquired properties are purchased and permanently preserved as open space. Further, Measure M funds come from the half-cent sales tax approved by Orange County Voters in 1990.

Paragraph 3: Sentence 2

Funding Sources:

• Measure M2 funds will be used to acquire and restore Banning Ranch.• Additional acquisition funds:• Private Individual Donors• Grants from Private Foundations• Public Grants

• No additional taxes are necessary.

“Our detractors, claim they want to buy the property and turn the entire property into a limited-access area. They seek to accomplish this by asking the tax payers for hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase the site, clean it up and build their plan. Their ideas will only lead to delaying the clean up and risk further degradation of what should be a great coastal property.”

FOR THE RECORD: The Conservancy’s plan will not further degrade “a great coastal property.” We aren’t building 1375 homes, a hotel and 75,000 sq ft of commercial space on Banning Ranch. Under our plan, the land will be preserved as a coastal nature preserve and park, which calls for open space remediation. Let’s take a look at what open space remediation on Banning Ranch looks like.

Paragraph 3: Last sentence

VERNAL POOLBanning Ranch has one of the last vernal pool complexes in Orange County.

Lupine growing in the grasslands

Encelia and other wild flowers growing on the mesa.

Banning Ranch Bluffs

Note the habitat growth. These are not recent photos. They’re pre-drought and pre-other conditions that have disturbed the habitat, but they show what can happen on Banning Ranch after a week or two of rain. It springs to life, despite the fact that it’s an operational oil field with significant soil and water contamination. Everything was growing and thriving and all it took was a little rain.

How is this possible? It’s because the land is self-remediating through a natural process called phytoremediation. Phyto is Latin for plant. Remediation means clean up. As it turns out, plants, left to their own devices, have the miraculous ability to clean up the contamination caused by humankind, even oil field toxins.

Let’s see how phytoremediation works.

Phytoremediation. Oxygen is a key component of phytoremediation. If the contaminated soil and water is sufficiently oxygenated to support microbial life, the microbes will degrade the oil wastes and render them useable to the plants, which further degrade them. Great educational tool.

What happens if Banning Ranch is kept as open space?

• No massive remediation of the oil field is required, at a cost of $30-60 million. • Per DOGGR regulations, old oil wells will not have to be blown out and filled with cement to plug and cap them at the cost of $80K to $150K per well. • Over 2 million cubic yards of contaminated soil won’t have to be excavated.• Natural land forms will not be altered. • Wildlife won’t be displaced or killed. • No rare or endangered species will be lost and the critical habitat won’t need to be restored because it won’t have been destroyed.

Open space avoids the massive destruction that comes with trying to develop the land. Plus, most of the amenities of residential development can be offered by open space use at a fraction of the cost.

The Conservancy believes that open space remediation is the ideal solution for much of Banning Ranch. It would utilize native plants

and natural forms of bioremediation to restore, preserve and protect the majority of the land as it now exists. In the lowlands, where the oil operation is located, there are hot spots that will require more extensive remediation.

“Why would government officials ever appropriate hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to buy a property when, following our plan, the property will be cleaned up, improved and given back to the community? The truth is that this property will either be developed into more than 300 acres of public open space, paid for by 80 acres of development unanimously approved by the City of Newport Beach in 2012; or, it will remain a fenced off oil field indefinitely. NBR continues to work with the Coastal Commission to process the Newport Banning Ranch plan.”

FOR THE RECORD: In 2006, Newport Beach voters chose open space use of Banning Ranch as their highest priority. Is it possible that government officials might actually value the preferences of those they serve? The habitat on Banning Ranch is considered high value, all of it. USFWS declared all of Banning Ranch as critical habitat for the Gnatcatcher. As explained in Slide 7, Measure M2 funds are used to acquire land to be permanently preserved as open space. Not the undeveloped bits and pieces of the land, not the fragments, all of it.

Paragraph 4: NBR’S Letter to the Public

CLOSING STATEMENT…

The Conservancy believes it would be a disservice to the purpose and intent of the Coastal Commission, as well as to the public, to in any way undermine the Banning Ranch review process by turning it into a contest—us versus them, NBR LLC vs the Banning Ranch Conservancy. We believe this would only distract from the project under consideration, which is Newport Banning Ranch.

NBR is the Project. NBR LLC is the Applicant, and the salient question, the one that must be answered before the application can be approved, is whether Newport Banning Ranch, the Project, conforms to the Coastal Act. Does NBR’s CDP application meet the statutory standards of the Coastal Act? To lose sight of that question would be a mistake and could take the process dangerously off track. The Conservancy doesn’t have a project before this Commission. We hope to one day, and we understand the interest in our conceptual vision for the land, which is why we gave a hard copy of our Vision Plan to each commissioner. It’s a work in progress, the content is fluid and changing because there’s much that has to happen, including the full review process. Please keep in mind that the Conservancy has not had access to the land, despite repeated requests. Prior to the Commission’s tour of Banning Ranch in June, I was one of several members of the Conservancy who’d never set foot on Banning Ranch. Nevertheless, we do have a Vision Plan, a Conceptual Water Quality Planand we’re working on a Draft Remedial Action Plan.

Phytoremediation uses green plants and their associated microorganisms to reduce contamination in soils, sediments, surface water and ground water. Microbes degrade the contamination. Plants called hydroaccumulators and extractors draw the contamination in through their roots, where the cleanup process begins.

Grasses, legumes and other plants are used to clean up crude oil contamination. Certain kinds of fungi are very effective in cleaning up diesel oil. That process is called mycoremediation.

Science & Mother Nature at Their Best