Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. records, 1956-2015

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Summary

Abstract:
Laguna Greenbelt, Incorporated (LGI) is an active non-profit organization founded in 1968 to preserve the open space bordering the City of Laguna Beach, California and comprising Sycamore Hills and five canyons: Aliso, Wood, El Toro, Laguna and Morro. LGI has worked both with and against local governments and private corporations in order to minimize land development of the designated greenbelt. The records include correspondence, legal papers, organizational publications, printed items, environmental impact reports, maps, visual materials, and minutes which document the origins and evolution of LGI in its first twenty years. The collection chronicles activities and evolving philosophies of LGI and its members, and it illustrates aspects of Orange County social and political history.
Extent:
20.25 Linear Feet (33 boxes and 2 oversize folders) and 50.4 unprocessed linear feet
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. records. MS-R064. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Background

Scope and content:

Laguna Greenbelt, Incorporated (LGI) is an active non-profit organization founded in 1968 to preserve the open space bordering the City of Laguna Beach, California and comprising Sycamore Hills and five canyons: Aliso, Wood, El Toro, Laguna and Morro. LGI has worked both with and against local governments and private corporations in order to minimize land development of the designated greenbelt. The records include correspondence, legal papers, organizational publications, printed items, environmental impact reports, visual materials and minutes which document the origins and evolution of LGI in its first twenty years. The collection chronicles activities and evolving philosophies of LGI and its members, and it illustrates aspects of Orange County social and political history.

The first group of Laguna Greenbelt, Incorporated (LGI) records documents the origins and activities from 1956 to 1990 of the environmental organization. Early materials (1956-1967) pertain to municipal general planning and land use and development in Orange County, California and include reports, pamphlets, maps and Laguna Beach and Irvine General Plans. The bulk of records, organized into ten functional series and ordered chronologically within each series, reflect LGI's first twenty years (1968-1988) of participation in numerous environmental issues, primarily land development in the Laguna Greenbelt, and the organization's evolving environmental philosophy.

The collection holds a wide variety of formats: correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings, newsletters, pamphlets and brochures, articles, minutes, financial papers, legal papers, reports, government information, environmental impact reports, maps, charts, and photographic prints and negatives. The majority of records are correspondence, memoranda, minutes and newspaper clippings created or collected by the organization during the course of business. These materials chronicle LGI's origins, membership, internal activities, positions and views. Legal papers, reports, environmental impact reports, and government information pertain to environmental issues in Orange County and elsewhere in California. Projects involving land development in Laguna Greenbelt from 1970 to 1985, particularly in Sycamore Hills, are well represented in the collection, and other records document regional and state environmental issues such as the coast and waste water treatment.

The collection's arrangement reflects the documents' format, genre and function. Within the individual series, materials are arranged chronologically. The complexity and overlap of the subjects determined this arrangement and precluded topical arrangement. Researchers should work closely with the Chronology and the Series descriptions to navigate the collection and to locate the available material on specific issues. For example, researchers must consult several, if not all, series to find all available information on Sycamore Hills or coastal conservation. Dates are supplied in the container list to guide researchers, and "n.d." is used to indicate no known date.

Biographical / historical:

Laguna Greenbelt, Incorporated (LGI) is a nonprofit environmental organization, founded in 1968 and incorporated in 1970. LGI's projects and strategic goals revolve around the environs of Laguna Beach, California. The organization seeks to preserve 10,000 acres of land for a greenbelt around the city. A greenbelt entails land set aside for agriculture, recreational parks or reserved open space and specifically excludes commercial development. LGI defines Laguna Greenbelt as Sycamore Hills, a land parcel vegetated with mature sycamore trees, and five canyons: Aliso, El Toro, Laguna, Morro and Wood. LGI has initiated and participated in local, regional and state-wide preservation efforts. Working both with and against municipal governments and commercial enterprises, it has promoted and opposed myriad projects affecting the environment.

This grassroots, citizens' group evolved from an ad hoc committee, the Citizens Town Planning Association (CTPA), formed in 1968 to advise Laguna Beach City Council on the city's General Plan (Municipal general plans govern land use and physical development of land within a political unit's sphere of influence.). Laguna Beach, a coastal city in Southern California, hired private consultants to amend Laguna Beach's General Plan in 1967. Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall, consultants (DMJM), presented the city with a plan which included resort development and a freeway bisecting the city. At a public hearing, residents rejected Laguna Beach's transformation into a major coastal resort city with a population growth projected to triple from its size in 1967. In response, the City Council dismissed DMJM, and CTPA assumed the role of advisory committee on land use. The committee rejected the proposed freeway and supported projects for a Festival Arts Plaza, a shoreline park and a greenbelt buffering the city from urban development.

James W. Dilley, proprietor of a paperback bookstore and resident of Laguna Beach, sat on CTPA and initiated the subsidiary committee, Citizens for the Greenbelt. Dilley had traveled in Europe where he learned about greenbelts and open space principles, and he became Laguna Beach's primary activist for land preservation and Greenbelt's leader. In 1968, Citizens for the Greenbelt circulated a petition titled "A Matter of Urgency" which opined the need for open space and immediate popular support for the Laguna Greenbelt due to impending threats of urban commercial development.

Citizens for the Greenbelt gained nonprofit corporation status becoming Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. in 1970 . As a nonprofit corporation, LGI could accept donations for land acquisition and act as a trust. The organization elected a Board of Trustees and established annual meetings for general membership. At annual meetings, Dilley introduced the tradition of reading victory statements which outlined LGI's progress towards open space goals.

The membership consisted primarily of Laguna Beach residents, but surrounding communities including Irvine, Laguna Hills and Leisure World contributed members as LGI activities expanded and land development boomed in Orange County. LGI's budget relied on donations, bequests and membership dues. The organization held several fund-raising events in its early years to build land acquisition funds and public support, including art auctions in cooperation with local artists, open houses, Greenbelt Week, Dilley Dinners, picnics and other events. In 1970, Beatrice Whittlesy, former Orange County Supervisor, bequeathed two acres of land to LGI. Several members including Dilley and Elisabeth Heckel added LGI to their wills.

From its inception, LGI has attempted to abate land development in the defined greenbelt and thus participated in numerous law suits as both a petitioner and as a respondent. The group appealed to municipal governments to recognize Laguna Greenbelt within General Plans and to purchase land dedicated to open space. Both Orange County and Laguna Beach recognized the greenbelt concept in 1971, but neither municipal government has provided unilateral support to all LGI projects. LGI did influence the shape of Orange County's General Plan, participating in public hearings and studies for the Plan's Open Space and Conservation Elements. LGI also initiated academic studies on the greenbelt and open space conducted at the University of California, Irvine, and encouraged compilation of environmental impact reports prior to development.

The scope of the organization's interests extended beyond Laguna Greenbelt to include regional and state issues, including flood control, transportation, waste disposal and coastal preservation. Regardless, LGI's focus remained in Laguna Beach and the surrounding open space. One of LGI's first extensive projects involved 522 acres of Sycamore Hills. In 1968, the owner of the land parcel, Great Lakes Carbon Company, proposed a housing development. Laguna Beach City Council and LGI opposed development and a protracted battle ensued to dedicate Sycamore Hills as open space. Palos Verdes Corporation, a subsidiary of Newport Investments, purchased the land and also proposed housing development. The City Council responded by placing a moratorium on construction in the area. Palos Verdes Corporation filed suit against Laguna Beach, LGI et al. in 1974. In a 1978 settlement, Laguna Beach purchased Sycamore Hills, but in order to fund the acquisition the City Council sold parcels to private developers and to the county for the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor. James Dilley, long-time opponent of automobiles, express highways and subsequent urban sprawl, and LGI contested the proposed Corridor from the project's inception in 1976.

Throughout the seventies and eighties, LGI unsuccessfully fought construction of the Corridor, but it did meet many goals to thwart development in the Greenbelt and to protect land as open space. LGI collaborated with various environmental groups and joined coalitions such as the California Planning and Conservation League in 1985. In 1978, LGI and Friends of the Irvine Coast worked together lobbying for an Orange County national urban park in a bill before Congress. Later national involvement in Orange County land use brought proposals for a national athletic fitness center to Laguna Niguel in 1985. Neither project came to fruition.

In 1985, LGI elected Elisabeth Brown, a Laguna Beach resident who holds a doctorate in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine, to LGI president, a position she continues to hold as of 1997. In the mid and late eighties under Brown's leadership, LGI continued to combat land developments within Laguna Greenbelt and other projects and proposals seen as posing a threat to the environment. Among numerous activities, it opposed an Aliso Water Management Agency proposal to receive a waiver on EPA regulations for waste water treatment, offshore oil drilling on California coast, and a sales tax hike for transportation improvement, and it fought various elements in San Joaquin Hills Corridor plan. LGI submitted recommendations for a park in Sycamore Hills and continued to hold fund raisers, with its primary mission still defined as the preservation of open space.

No Subnote Content

Acquisition information:
Gift of Laguna Greenbelt, Incorporated in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2013, 2019, and 2022. The UCI Libraries is the official repository for LGI's non-current records; future donations are expected.
Processing information:

Preliminary processing by Joanna Brand of LGI in circa 1983. Full processing and guide for accessions received in 1996 and 1997 was completed by Laura Clark Brown in 1997. A preliminary container list was created for the accession received in 1998 by Alexis Schwarz; edits to this list were made by Deborah Lewis in 2014. Additions were processed by Zoe MacLeod in 2022.

Arrangement:

This collection is organized in twelve series:

  • Series 1. Correspondence, 1968-2007. 0.8 linear ft.
  • Series 2. Memoranda, 1969-2004. 0.4 linear ft.
  • Series 3. Printed items, 1963-2006. 0.8 linear ft.
  • Series 4. Minutes, 1970-1988. 0.8 linear ft.
  • Series 5. Financial papers, 1971-2003. 0.4 linear ft.
  • Series 6. Legal papers, 1964-2005. 0.4 linear ft.
  • Series 7. Reports, studies, plans and government information, 1958-2001. 3.2 linear ft.
  • Series 8. Environmental impact reports and statements, 1972-2002. 1.6 linear ft.
  • Series 9. Subject Files, 1967-2014. 1.6 linear ft.
  • Series 10. Visual materials, 1956-2007. 0.8 linear ft.
  • Series 11. Meeting Agendas, 1973-2004
  • Series 12. Old Records, 1984-2001

The collection also contains five unprocessed additions:

  • Accession 1998.006. Unprocessed addition 1998 container list, circa 1988-1998. 30.8 linear ft.
  • Accession 2001.016. Unprocessed addition 2001, circa 1981-1998. 1 linear ft.
  • Accession 2002.021. Unprocessed addition 2002, circa 1987-1997. 4 linear ft.
  • Accession 2008.013. Unprocessed addition 2008, circa 1985-1997. 2 linear ft.
  • Accession 2019.055. Unprocessed addition 2019, 1963-2015. 13.2 linear ft.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Processed components of the collection are open for research. Unprocessed additions may contain restricted materials. Please contact the Department of Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access.

Terms of access:

Property rights reside with the University of California. Copyrights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

Preferred citation:

Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. records. MS-R064. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Location of this collection:
P.O. Box 19557
Irvine, CA , US
Contact:
(949) 824-3947
spcoll@uci.libanswers.com
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