In December 2021, three members of the Irvine City Council — Tammy Kim, Mike Carroll and Anthony Kuo — made an unusual push to award Casco Construction a multi-million-dollar contract to install, maintain and operate 288 EV charging stations in five large parking lots at the Great Park, despite the fact that two other firms had been recommended to the Council by City staff following a formal bid process.

The City was promised $2 million in annual revenue from those charging stations. But, the charging stations were not included in the recent budget because the annual revenue to the City is actually “near zero,” according to Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi. Usage has also been negligible, Chi said.

The neighbors have received a letter letting them know of a plan to replace nine office buildings within the Von Karman Corporate Center — on the northeast corner of Von Karman and Alton Parkway close to their homes — with a 541,000-square-foot warehouse complex. (That’s about the size of four Costco stores under one roof.)

One of the affected residents who received the letter, Valer Cupsa, told KABC-TV News that the mega-warehouse would drastically change the aesthetics of the neighborhood.

Those programs include: additional school resource officers and school nurses; an expansion of the successful school bus program that was launched last year for University High students living in Quail Hill; support for child care and after-school programs; and a raise for City workers making less than $20 per hour.

After praising Agran’s proposal in June and voting to support it, at the July 9th meeting Councilmember Tammy Kim reversed her support, characterized Agran’s proposal in apocalyptic terms as irresponsible, and insisted that the Council vote to keep the Contingency Fund unchanged.

The Irvine City Council recently approved a pre-development agreement that should lead to the groundbreaking for the museum as early as next year.

A state-of-the-art 100,000 square foot museum is being built in the Cultural Terrace area of the Great Park, adjacent to the existing Sports Complex.

It will feature more than 40 aircraft as well as related artifacts and displays — including an ejection seat, radar, night vision and air traffic control exhibits. There will also be a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education facility.

The paperwork includes an address, phone number and treasurer from Imperial Beach in San Diego County.

Calling itself “Friends of Tammy Kim — a committee in support of Tammy Kim for Mayor 2024,” the committee’s paperwork lists Briana Bilbray as treasurer. Bilbray, the daughter of former Representative Brian Bilbray (R-Imperial Beach), is also known as Briana Baleskie. She has been treasurer for many campaigns and organizations, including Paul Gosar for Congress in Arizona, and a committee called “Build the Wall.”

Having closed the All American Asphalt plant last year, Irvine is now moving to head off what City Manager Oliver Chi called “one of the last quality-of-life issue in North Irvine”: increasing truck traffic to and from the Bowerman Landfill about a mile east of the 241 toll road along Bee Canyon Road.

The County is planning to phase out the Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea starting next year, and the hundreds of trash trucks now topping off that facility will be diverted to the two remaining landfills in OC, the Prima Deshecha Landfill in San Juan Capistrano and Bowerman.

 
In January, Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva and State Senator Tom Umberg released a report from the California Department of General Services estimating the direct costs of the Gypsum Canyon plan at $126 million. In an accompanying press release, Quirk-Silva invited public analysis of the report.