One of the ways Bunyan has been most visible in the community is through his efforts to stop the owners of Banning Ranch, a 400-acre plot of land next to Costa Mesa, from putting more than 1,000 homes and a hotel on the property.
As an integral member of the Save the Banning Ranch Task Force, Bunyan has fought against the proposal, saying it would be a heavy burden on Costa Mesa because of the extra traffic it would cause on the 55 Freeway and nearby surface streets and the loss of open space that could be used for recreation by Costa Mesans.
This is Bunyan’s second attempt at securing a council seat. He had the lowest vote total of the six contenders for two seats in the 2006 general election with only 3% of the voter share.
“When I entered the race in 2006, absolutely nobody knew who I was. If you looked up ‘dark horse’ in the dictionary, you would have seen my name there,” Bunyan said.
After that election, though, Bunyan became more visibly active in the community. He received the Outstanding Community Leadership Award in 2007 from Leadership Tomorrow — an organization sponsored by the Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Irvine chambers of commerce that seeks to breed community leaders — for his activities with the Costa Mesa Library Foundation, the Costa Mesa Historic Preservation Committee, the Costa Mesa Cultural Arts Committee, the Westside Business Assn. and the Surfrider Foundation.
Because of this type of community involvement, Bunyan thinks he has a much better chance of winning a seat this time around.
