EHL’s role in protecting the natural resources of southern Orange County was extensively covered by the press.



Following Orange County’s approval of the Rancho Mission Viejo project, EHL Executive Director Dan Silver was quoted in the Sun Post News of Nov. 18, 2004 under the headline, “County Shrugged Concerns over RMV.”  “Serious concerns from neighboring cities over traffic were shrugged off, and pleas to save key portions of the 23,000-acre ranch as a nature preserve were ignored.  We had been promised a responsible planning process, but at the end of the day it was business as usual:  14,000 units locked in with a 30-year binding agreement, but community interests not served.”

The OC Weekly did an in depth story on the Rancho Mission Viejo development (“A Win-Lose Solution: Say hello to more South County homes, adios to wilderness,” Nov. 26, 2004 edition).   Silver was quoted at length, praising the “historical responsible stewardship” of the ranch family, but clearly stating the problem now at hand: "We’ve always favored a solution that is not completely opposing development but that still protects key resources," Silver said. "Unfortunately, the county rejected that win-win solution and pretty much rubber-stamped the developer’s plan. What we have now will be devastating to Orange County’s natural resources."

Another in-depth story appeared in the January 2005 California Planning and Development Report (“Orange County’s Ranch Plan Approved, But Detractors Persist”).  Described as a “leader in the fight against the ranch plan,” EHL’s Dan Silver described the habitat fragmentation that the project would cause, and argued against the fiction that an NCCP plan could be resurrected later.  “They have essentially foreclosed on the NCCP.  The NCCP is not close to being finished, it is finished.  It’s dead.”

EHL’s lawsuit against the project was covered in both the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register on December 9, 2004.  In the Times story, “Environmental Coalition Sues to Block Development,” Silver stated, "The environmental assessment rubber-stamped by the county claims that this colossal development on mostly unspoiled land will have no significant environmental impact, and that's simply not plausible.”  The Register story (“Suits target ranch plans: They say county's OK of zoning change for Rancho Mission Viejo was improper”) also included remarks by Silver, and focused on the conflict between the binding development agreement and future mitigation of wildlife and traffic impacts.