Author: Roger Bloom
The Deal That Keeps on Giving: The Gateway Preserve
Last year’s agreement among the City, Irvine Company and All American Asphalt has already resulted in the closure of the noxious plant that was making life miserable for thousands of North Irvine residents.
Now that deal, brokered by Vice Mayor Larry Agran with Council support, is on the verge of also putting hundreds of millions of dollars into the City’s coffers.
Last year’s deal had All American Asphalt agreeing to sell its North Irvine plant and property to the City. The City would then shut the plant down and use the site and adjacent City-owned parcels to create a 700-acre nature preserve.
The Irvine Company agreed to dedicate to the City a 70-acre parcel at Jeffrey Road and Portola Parkway zoned for residential development, which the City would then sell to developers to cover the cost of purchasing the plant.
The cost of the asphalt plant purchase and site cleanup was estimated at $330 million, and the sale of the residential property was estimated to just about cover that.
Now, a year later, the bids are in and the Council has accepted Brookfield Residential’s offer of $600-650 million for the land and development rights to what’s been dubbed Gateway Village.
To read more, click here.
Read More
City of Irvine Breaks Ground on JOST Bridge
With the recent groundbreaking on the Jeffrey Open Space Trail (JOST) bridge over the I-5 Freeway, the City has embarked on the last step — or last pedal — in the creation of a bicycle and pedestrian trail system linking the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ana Mountains.
When completed, the 1,200-foot JOST bridge will be the longest bridge in the City and will be “a critical step in finishing the Jeffrey Open Space Trail and making the route more accessible to Irvine residents,” said Mayor Farrah Khan.
Senator Dave Min secured $14.5 million in state funding for the project. “Connecting the Jeffrey Open Space Trail from the mountains to the coast will continue to make Orange County a central destination for those who love the outdoors,” he said.
The IVC Arts Village is Now Open
There is a renaissance underway at Irvine Valley College (IVC) with the recent opening of the new...
Read More
Councilmembers Kim & Treseder Shut Down City Council Meeting … Again
Yet another Irvine City Council meeting was cut short by the walkout of two Councilmembers opposed to hearing public comments regarding the violence in the Mideast.
This time, however, Councilmembers Tammy Kim and Kathleen Tresder bizarrely walked out to stymie discussion of two measures placed on the Council agenda by Treseder herself.
As has happened twice in the past two months, with Councilmmember Mike Carroll out sick, Mayor Farrah Khan had to adjourn the official Council meeting for lack of a quorum after Councilmembers Kim and Treseder abruptly left the meeting.
Mayor Khan and Vice Mayor Larry Agran, as they have done in the past, stayed on the dais for nearly 90 minutes listening to commenters who had waited all evening to speak, in an informal continuation of the meeting.
To read more, click here.
advertisement
