UNITE HERE Local 11 and the Irvine-Laguna Wildlife Corridor

UNITE HERE Local 11 applauds Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. for partnering with the company designing the wildlife crossing over the 101 Freeway north of Los Angeles. As a Charter Partner, Local 11 proudly collaborates on the work to complete the Irvine-Laguna Wildlife Corridor, a project of Laguna Greenbelt that links the south coastal wilderness of Orange County to the Santa Ana Mountains.

This key biodiversity corridor was under threat from development since the land became available in 1993. Voters protected it as Open Space Reserve when they passed Measure W in 2002. But in 2014, the County of Orange signed a deal with a private real estate company to build 1 million square feet of office space, almost 2,000 residential units, 200,000 square feet of retail space, and 242 hotel rooms. Local 11 joined a lawsuit with Laguna Greenbelt to protect two key parcels of land through which the corridor runs (outlined in blue and in red in the following map) and ensure the County used the land for the purposes voters overwhelmingly approved.

Click here to learn more about the Wildlife Corridor and its progress toward completion, or click the map below to see the latest on Instagram.