Author: ICNV Staff

The City of Irvine has hired a large law firm in anticipation of a costly legal battle over the City’s refusal to transition to district elections.

On May 18th, Orange County officially moved to the least restrictive yellow tier in the State’s COVID-19 tier system.

However, the State’s indoor mask mandate will remain in effect until June 15th. The four-week delay is intended to give businesses time to make adjustments and for more people to get vaccinated before the State fully reopens.

Last May, Mayor Farrah Khan and Councilmembers Anthony Kuo and Mike Carroll voted to rezone the ARDA site in the Great Park exclusively for a Veterans Memorial Park & Cemetery.

A year later, Khan, Kuo, and Carroll say the project isn’t moving forward because they are waiting for a $700,000 CalVet study to be completed (comparing the ARDA site to another piece of property in Irvine) before they decide which site the City will transfer to the State — ignoring the fact that it was their vote last year that changed City law, making the ARDA site the only legally available location for a Veterans Memorial Park.

The Irvine City Council will soon be discussing how the City will spend the $53 million in federal funding that has been provided to Irvine as part of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan. The discussion was originally scheduled to take place at the April 27th Council meeting but has been postponed.

According to a memo, City staff is recommending that the bulk of the funding be spent on improvements to Heritage Community Park ($42 million).

Since 2019, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) has reported more than 800 complaints from Irvine residents. Beyond the noxious odors, there are growing concerns about the adverse health effects from the plant’s toxic emissions.

Unable to make tangible progress with the City of Irvine and AQMD, the homeowners have taken matters into their own hands by filing a class action lawsuit against the asphalt company.