In some respects, the dispute over plans for a huge housing and commercial project in Orange County's Rancho Mission Viejo is a typical fight between environmentalists and developers. But the ecological stakes are considered to be higher in this case. Rancho Mission Viejo is one of the last large pieces of privately-owned, undeveloped land in coastal southern California. On top of that, so many of the local plants and animals are only found in this region, and so many of them are endangered, that the area is considered one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. KPCC's Ilsa Setziol reports.
