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Celebration dinner for Elisabeth Brown – recognizing many years of focused service to Laguna Canyon, the laguna greenbelt, The Laguna Greenbelt organization and the wildlife corridor. December 2019
SAVING ALISO CREEK: 50 Year Anniversary
SAVING ALISO CREEK: 50 Year Anniversary
In November 1973 a group of approximately 26 south Orange County residents formed the Aliso Creek Corridor Study Team, led by architect Ron Yeo. The purpose was to preserve the 19 mile Aliso Creek, which begins in the foothills of upper El Toro and extends to the ocean at Aliso Beach in South Laguna. The group was sponsored by the Saddleback Area Coordinating Council and UCI Extension. After over 6 months of weekly meetings and many weekend field trips, the volunteer Study Team presented their report “Aliso Creek: Forest to the Sea” to the Orange County Board of Supervisors in July 1974. This 9 minute presentation, with slides, narration, and music, resulted in a unanimous vote by the Board to prepare the Aliso Creek Corridor Specific Plan to incorporate the Study Team’s recommendations for open space preservation.
This planning effort proved to be consequential to the Laguna Greenbelt because the Study Team report led directly to the preparation of the Specific Plan, completed in 1977. To implement these open space goals, in 1990 the County of Orange established the 4,500 acre Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, which became a significant part of the Greenbelt.
This video includes a recent introduction by Ron Yeo, the Study Team leader. Laguna Greenbelt Inc. Board member Bob Borthwick was on the volunteer Team. In 1975 the Board of Supervisors appointed Ron Yeo to the Orange County Planning Commission and Borthwick was appointed to serve as the Public Member of the Aliso Creek Corridor Planning Task Group to monitor the project.
The original 1974 presentation was digitally re-mastered by CMM Studio Laguna Beach, CA in 2020.
Winter Break Activity for the Kids (pdf)
Community remembers Jim Dilley, Father of the Greenbelt
A colorful and beloved character, a man of great wit, fond of books and history, Jim Dilley was the owner of a local bookstore. He was a lover of nature and interested in town planning and conservation of open space.
Dilley founded the Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. in 1968 to ultimately make his dream of open space preservation a reality, a dream realized with the preservation of 22,000 acres.
Following his passing in 1980, the proceeds of selling the bookstore were later dedicated to the Canyon Club located off Laguna Canyon Road. Now a beautiful bronze plaque is hung in the Canyon Club to inform people of this significant event in the history.
James W. Dilley, 1912-1980, “Father of the Laguna Greenbelt”
Dilley was a friend of Bruce Hopping and many others who contributed to the Village that has become the City of Laguna Beach and helped protect both open space and the ocean, now a “marine preserve” along the coastline.
The plaque project was initiated and funded by the Kalos Agathos Foundation as an honored wish of the late Bruce Hopping, longtime Laguna resident and admirer of Dilley and his efforts to preserve the open space surrounding Laguna Beach.
For more details of Jim Dilley’s life, visit www.lagunagreenbelt.org. The image of Dilley on a bronze plaque was designed and mounted under the direction of artist Bill Atkins.
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