The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County on Wednesday announced plans to protect a 2,640-acre ranch south of Highway 101. The property is in San Benito and Monterey counties and borders a stretch of Highway 101 that has a tunnel complex that could become a wildlife crossing under the busy highway.
The Land Trust acquired the purchase rights from the Bingaman family, which has owned the uninhabited ranch since 1947. The property will be held by a third party for up to three years while the Land Trust raises $10.8 million to complete the purchase.
The previous owners planned to build up to 900 houses and a hotel on the property, forever eliminating the possibility of building a wildlife crossing under Highway 101 as it crosses from San Juan Bautista to the Monterey Peninsula.
Dan Medeiros, the Land Trust’s Project Director, called it, “A dream landscape for wildlife. It has water, grass, open land, breeding habitat, everything.” Even, he said, an existing tunnel complex under Highway 101 leading directly into Rocks Ranch.
The group has three years to pay the $10.8 million that completes the purchase.
