Month: January 2022

As the 1990s came to a close, the City found itself in a very difficult — but ultimately successful — battle to preserve our City’s quality of life when the Orange County Board of Supervisors decided they wanted to build a huge, noisy international airport in what is now north Irvine. The proposed flight paths of the 747s would have gone directly over Irvine 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The next two Irvine Mayors — Beth Krom & Sukhee Kang were also dynamic leaders. Mayor Krom expanded affordable housing, controlled growth, and tripled our City’s “Rainy Day Reserves.” Mayor Kang is responsible for our City’s iShuttle service and ensuring that every child in Irvine had health insurance.

The Great Park ARDA site makes up about 10% of the land that was transferred to the City of Irvine from the U.S. Government when the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station was decommissioned after nearly 60 years of operations.

Councilmember Larry Agran has a plan for how the City can preserve the ARDA site forever … and add a beautiful new amenity to the Great Park. Agran is proposing that the City begin building a Veterans Memorial Park on the ARDA site — a vast park filled with trees, trails, and memorial gardens that honor our City’s rich military history and our veterans.

In 1990, the religious-right took aim at Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, who had authored and won approval for a comprehensive Human Rights Ordinance which was years ahead of other cities and the first of its kind in Orange County.

Two years later, Shea secured her own spot on the Council, joining three other newcomers. Just as the national recession set in, the inexperienced new Council made the fateful decision to invest $200 million of Irvine taxpayer money in Orange County’s investment pool. In 1994, the County made front-page news for all the wrong reasons — it became the largest county in America to ever file for bankruptcy. The City of Irvine had invested a whopping $200 million in the fund, far more than any other Orange County city.

The new year provides each of us with an opportunity to reflect on the past while looking toward a more hopeful future.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we began construction of this beautiful Veterans Memorial Park in the first half of 2022?