Pacific Horizon Preserve Restoration Begins Soon

ORANGE COUNTY, CA —The Pacific Horizon Preserve, a 151-acre property near the Ranch Hotel, Barracuda Way, and Loretta Drive, will soon be restored to its natural beauty thanks to the Orange County Transit Authority and an approved permit by the California Coastal Commission.

The preserve sits high above Laguna Beach with a full view of the pacific, featuring many habitats for the animals who call it home. Coastal sage scrub, grassland, and chaparral hide natural trails for deer, coyotes, brush rabbits, Beechy ground squirrels, Botta pocket gophers, and other wildlife.
Man, unlike the critters, has wreaked havoc in the preserve, creating unauthorized jumps for mountain bikes, and offshoots of allowed trails.

Now, the focus will remain on maintaining the natural beauty of the trail, including the wild flora and fauna who call it home.

Over the past few years, an unauthorized 843-foot trail that wrecked natural habitats with bike jumps and invasive non-native plants will be repaired, Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said.

According to the restoration plan, that trail that runs through sensitive habitat will be closed off, allowing native plant species to be restored in that area.

"Hikers and mountain bikers will continue to have access to an adjacent trail," OCTA spokesperson Eric Carpenter told Patch. "All will still have access to the property from the same points – Aliso and Wood Canyon Wilderness Park, and Moulton Meadows Park."

"The unauthorized trail is 'duplicative' of the main trail," a report to the California Coastal Commission said, and the other path will remain.

According to Karl Schwing, South Coast District Director for the Coastal Commission, no one was opposed to the plan for repairing the scarred earth.

The OCTA purchased the preserve in 2015 as part of its environmental mitigation program, thanks to Measure M.

"In all, 5-percent of Measure M's freeway budget is available for the program," he said. That amounts to over $300 million over 30 years. That mitigation pays for the habitat restoration efforts, as well as the acquiring of other such properties.

To date, OCTA has purchased seven open-space properties from willing sellers, amounting to 1,300 acres thus far, Carpenter told Patch.

The environmental program helps offset the dozen or more OCTA freeway-improvement projects, Carpenter said.

"Those projects are improving our regional transportation system and keeping Orange County moving," Carpenter said.

According to Bartlett, Measure M's half-cent sales tax for transportation infrastructure improvements approved by county voters in 1990 and extended in 2006, Measure M is expected to generate more than $13.1 billion through 2041.

The restoration will be ongoing until 2024.