Charles Munger, a Montecito billionaire and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., plans to gift UC Santa Barbara with the 1,800-acre Las Varas Ranch property bordering the Pacific Ocean along the Gaviota Coast.
The agricultural property six miles west of the UCSB campus is divided by Highway 101 and extends from the shoreline through Las Varas Canyon to Los Padres National Forest.
“This is a great visionary gift to our campus from philanthropist Charles T. Munger, who is interested in the long-term benefit it can provide to UC Santa Barbara,” said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang in a statement. “We are immensely fortunate to have been entrusted with this coastal jewel.”
The property includes two miles of coastline, and contains more than 500 acres of pastureland, an 18-acre lake, fruit orchards and “rich agricultural resources and exceptional educational opportunities,” Yang said.
For the foreseeable future, UCSB will maintain the property in its current state as a working ranch, according to the university.
Munger is expected to purchase the property for $70 million and then donate it to UCSB in early 2019.
Berkshire Hathaway owns many companies, including Geico, Dairy Queen and Fruit of the Loom. Munger, 94, has long been a supporter of the UC system.
In 2014, Munger donated $65 million to UC Santa Barbara — the largest gift in the university’s history.
The money was used to build a three-story residence for visiting scientists and pre-eminent physicists from around the world. In 2016, Munger proposed spending $200 million to build towers to house thousands of UCSB students.
According to the California Coastal Conservancy, Las Varas Ranch served as a prisoner of war camp during World War II.
“We are enormously grateful to Charlie Munger for blessing our campus with this fabulous gift that will benefit our university for generations to come,” Yang said. “This is much more than just a gift of land, but rather a living legacy, a vision for the long-range future of our campus.”
The property was recently at the center of environmental debate.
The Santa Barbara County in 2015 denied a request by the Doheny family to subdivide the property, which could have paved the way for residential development. After the county blocked the request, the property owners put it on the market for $108 million, according to the conservancy.
The announcement comes nearly a year after the Nature Conservancy purchased the 24,500-acre Bixby Ranch on the Gaviota Coast
“The Gaviota Coast Conservancy’s sole focus is the Gaviota Coast,” said Steve Forsell, the group’s president. “For two decades, we have worked to prevent large residential development proposals, and the Gaviota Coast is largely unchanged.
“We are pleased that NGOs (non-government organizations) and academic institutions have stepped up and acquire and permanently protect large portions of Gaviota Coast’s vulnerable lands. This is a great holiday present for Santa Barbara and California.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.