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Robinson (Frank and Frances) Files on Upper Newport Bay Preservation
MS.R.090
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
Title: Frank and Frances Robinson files on Upper Newport Bay preservation
Identifier/Call Number: MS.R.090
Physical Description:
30 Linear Feet
(29 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1841-2003
Date (bulk): 1889-1989
Abstract: This collection consists of Frank and Frances Robinson's research materials relating to issues surrounding the proposed land
exchange between the County of Orange and The Irvine Company that would have allowed the latter to develop the Upper Newport
Bay, California. Included are court materials relating to the subsequent trial and electioneering and publicity as well as
subsequent activities in the development of the Upper Newport Bay as a nature preserve.
Language of Material:
English
.
The collection is open for research.
Staff assistance is required for use of rolled maps in Boxes 27 and 28.
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.
Frank and Frances Robinson files on Upper Newport Bay preservation. MS-R090. 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.
Gift of J. Frank Robinson, 2002.
A minimal collection-level record was created by Carole McEwan in 2012. Processing and description by Patricia Glowinski,
2012, with additions by Audra Eagle Yun, 2013 and Sara Seltzer, 2014.
Frank and Frances Robinson were environmental activists who spent over 25 years working to ensure public access to and the
preservation of Upper Newport Bay located in Orange County, California. In 1962, the Robinsons moved from La Canada, near
Los Angeles, to Newport Beach, California. Frank Robinson (d. 2002), an aerospace engineer, and Frances Robinson (d. 2001),
a homemaker, bought a modest home in the Westcliff community of Newport Beach, just a few blocks from Newport Bay. In 1963,
the Robinson's son Jay discovered newly posted "private" beach signs along the beaches of Upper Newport Bay. This event marked
the beginning of the Robinson's two and a half decade effort to ensure public access to the beaches along Newport Bay, as
well as to preserve Upper Newport Bay as a nature preserve.
After the "discovery" of the private beach signs, Frances began to clip newspaper articles regarding the proposed land exchange
between The Irvine Company and the County of Orange. The land exchange would have allowed prime Upper Newport Bay waterfront
property to be developed by the Irvine Company into upscale homes with private waterfront access. The development would require
extensive dredging and land filling of the bay. Between 1963 and 1969, local citizens, including the Robinsons, began to organize
in opposition to the trade and to protect public access to the beaches. This included the founding of Friends of Newport Bay
(FONB) in 1967, an organization dedicated to educating the public about environmental issues pertaining to Newport Bay. In
1969, when the Irvine Company and the County entered into a friendly lawsuit to establish the legality of the trade and to
finalize the Irvine Company's title to the tidelands, the Robinsons and two other couples, Harold and Joan Coverdale and Wesley
and Judith Marx, were granted the right to intervene on behalf of the county in opposition of the trade. Also in 1969, as
a result of the growing costs of the lawsuit, the Orange County Foundation for Preservation of Public Property was founded
as a non-profit organization to serve as the fundraising and legal arm for the "intervenors" of the lawsuit.
Between 1963 and 1973, the year the land exchange was deemed unconstitutional by the California State Court of Appeal, Frank
and and Frances Robinson acquired 10 years of their own research, as well as the papers and research of others connected to
or involved in the land exchange lawsuit, including as Charles Greening, who served as president of FONB, Robert Battin, who
served on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and attorney C. E. (Ted) Parker who was hired by the Orange County Board
of Supervisors to investigate the validity of the Irvine Company's Swamp and Overflowed patents. In 1975, a settlement agreement
was reached and the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve was created.
In 1977, Frank Robinson received a copy of the 1889 field notes of a survey of Upper Newport Bay by S. H. Finley. In this
1889 document, the tidelands in question in the first lawsuit were originally classified as tidelands. In response to this
"new" information regarding the classification of the tidelands, the Orange County Foundation for Preservation of Public Property
filed a lawsuit against the Irvine Company, the First American Insurance Title Company, and the State of California for the
return of $3.48 million (the amount paid to the Irvine Company for the "islands" in Upper Newport Bay in the first lawsuit),
plus interest, to be returned to the State of California. Unlike the first lawsuit, this lawsuit was awarded in favor of the
Irvine Company in 1987.
From 1987, until their deaths in 2001 and 2002 respectively, Frances and Frank Robinson continued to work for the preservation
of Upper Newport Bay as an ecological reserve and as a public park. As of 2013, Newport Bay Conservancy (formerly Newport
Bay Naturalists & Friends), the descendant organization of the merger of FONB and Upper Newport Bay Naturalists, continues
to work to provide educational programs and to restore and preserve the tidelands and uplands of Upper Newport Bay.
| 1962 | Frank and Frances Robinson and their two children move from La Canada to the Westcliff neighborhood of Newport Beach, California, two blocks from Newport Bay. |
| 1962 Summer | The Robinson's son Jay discovers "private" signs posted along the beach in Newport Bay (Back Bay). |
| 1963 May | Frances collects news clippings detailing a proposed channelization and development of Upper Newport Bay. Included would be a land exchange between the County of Orange and The Irvine Company. |
| 1965 | Orange County Board of Supervisors approve the land exchange. The State Lands Commission vote to withhold approval. |
| 1967 | The State Lands Commission reverses its non-approval position on the land exchange. The Robinsons become more determined to keep fighting and they continue to travel, lecture, write letters, and talk to people to gather public and political support. |
| 1967 | Friends of Newport Bay (FONB) formed. |
| 1969 January-February | Santa Barbara oil spill. The devastation spurred a growing awareness and interest in the United States of ecological issues and of the issues and importance of coastal wetlands. |
| 1969 | A "friendly" lawsuit is brought by the County of Orange against The Irvine Company (TIC) in order to establish legality of the trade and finalize TIC's title to the tidelands. The Robinsons and two other couples (Harold and Joan Coverdale and Wesley and Judith Marx) petition the court and are granted the right to "intervene" on behalf of the county in opposition to the trade. |
| 1969 | Orange County Foundation for Preservation of Public Property founded. |
| 1970 | The California Department of Fish and Game issue a report warning of dire ecological consequences if major modifications are made to Newport Bay and support preservation of the bay. |
| 1970 | Orange County Superior Court Judge Claude Owens rules in favor of the land exchange. |
| 1971 | Orange County Board of Supervisors oppose the land exchange. |
| 1972 | Orange County Board of Supervisors hire attorney C. E. Parker to investigate the validity of the Irvine Company's Swamp and Overflowed patents. |
| 1973 | California State Court of Appeal reverses the 1970 Superior Court ruling and deems the land exchange unconstitutional. |
| 1975 | Upper Newport Settlement Agreement is signed by The Irvine Company, County of Orange, City of Newport Beach, and the Department of Fish and Game authorizing the State to purchase 527 acres within Newport Bay from TIC for $3.48 million. Combined with 214 acres of tidelands, the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve is created. |
| 1975 | Following the settlement agreement, Parker's investigation was terminated by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Parker continues an investigation regarding titles during the second lawsuit (1979-1987). |
| 1977 | Frank Robinson receives a copy of Solomon Finley's field notes of his 1889 survey of Upper Newport Bay. In the field notes, Finley classifies all of the islands in Newport Bay as tidelands. |
| 1979 | Orange County Foundation for Preservation of Public Property files lawsuit against The Irvine Company, First American Title Insurance Company, and the State of California for the return of the $3.48 million plus interest to the State of California. |
| 1987 | Judge Judith Ryan rules in favor of The Irvine Company. |
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection comprises the files and research material maintained by Frank and Frances Robinson during a roughly twenty-five-year
period when they were engaged in two lawsuits regarding the constitutionality of a land exchange between The Irvine Company
and the County of Orange and the rightful ownership of tidelands in Upper Newport Bay. The collection also documents the activities
of the Robinson's and other local environmental activists as they organized to establish Upper Newport Bay as a nature preserve.
The collection contains correspondence, legal documents, organizational records, newsletters, notebooks and notes, clippings,
photographs, publications, maps and plans, calendars, and ephemera. Research material includes photocopies of numerous historical
documents including maps, plans, correspondence, field notes and surveys of Newport Bay, deeds, and titles.
This collection is arranged in eight series:
- Series 1. Lawsuit 1: County of Orange and The Irvine Company v. V. A. Heim, the State of California, and Frank and Frances Robinson, Harold and Joan Coverdale, and Wesley and Judith Marx, as residents and taxpayers of the County of Orange, 1952-1977, bulk 1963-1975, 3.25 linear feet
- Series 2. Lawsuit 2: Lawsuit: Orange County Foundation for the Preservation of Public Property, et al. v. The Irvine Company, et. al., 1919-1990, bulk 1985-1988, 1.75 linear feet
- Series 3. Friends of Newport Bay, 1965-1994, bulk 1968-1977, 1.75 linear feet
- Series 4. Orange County Foundation for Preservation of Public Property, 1919-1984, bulk 1965-1970, 1 linear foot
- Series 5. Robert Battin files, 1963-1975, 2 linear feet
- Series 6. C. E. (Ted) Parker files, 1858-1996 and undated, 2.65 linear feet
- Series 7. Subject files, 1841-1991, 6.5 linear feet
- Series 8. Research material and notes, 1916-2003, 10.5 linear feet
Funding for processing was generously provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Council on Library
and Information Resources (CLIR). The UC Irvine Libraries Department of Special Collections and Archives was awarded a Cataloging
Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from 2010-2012, "Uncovering California's Environmental Collections," in collaboration
with eight additional special collections and archival repositories throughout the state and the California Digital Library
(CDL). Grant objectives included processing of more than 33 hidden collections related to the state's environment and environmental
history. The collections document an array of important sub-topics such as irrigation, mining, forestry, agriculture, industry,
land use, activism, and research. Together they form a multifaceted picture of the natural world and the way it was probed,
altered, exploited and protected in California over the twentieth century. Finding aids are made available through the Online
Archive of California (OAC).
Related materials can be found in the following collections in the Department of Special Collections and Archives:
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Ecological reserves -- California -- Upper Newport Bay
Environmental protection -- California -- Orange County -- History -- Sources
Land use -- Law and legislation -- California -- Orange County
Activists -- California -- Orange County.
Wetland conservation -- California -- Upper Newport Bay
Newport Bay (Calif.) -- Environmental conditions -- 20th century
Environmentalists -- California -- Orange County
Land use -- California -- Upper Newport Bay
Land use -- Environmental Aspects -- California -- Orange County
Legal documents -- California -- Orange County -- 20th century
Coastal ecology -- California -- Orange County
Orange County (Calif.) -- Archives
Wetland restoration -- California -- Upper Newport Bay
Environmental Coalition of Orange County, Inc. (Calif.)
Friends of Newport Bay