Irvine is One of the Greenest Cities in America

by ICNV Staff

Thanks to its abundance of parks, bikeways, open spaces and trees, last year Irvine was ranked the greenest city in Southern California and the fourth greenest city in the entire nation. And the Trust for Public Land recognized Irvine’s park system as the second-best in America. The City was also recognized as one of the first “Clean California Communities” for its green leadership.

The City’s high percentage of green space and its environmental leadership has been part of Irvine’s foundation since its earliest planning. The City’s Master Plan called for parks, open space, walking trails, and bike paths to be woven throughout neighborhoods. An impressive 28% of Irvine’s land is dedicated to parks and green spaces, which is nearly double the national average. And 96% of Irvine residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park.

Mayor Larry Agran recently explained why he’s such a tree enthusiast: “Like most people, I love trees. They ask so little from us, and yet they give us so much. They provide shade and cool our City on hot days; they help clean and oxygenate the air we breathe; they sequester huge amounts of carbon in our fight against global warming. And trees are just so beautiful to behold, offering a kind of psychological relief in a stressful world.” The Mayor’s Urban Forest Master Plan, adopted by the City Council last October, will add another 60,000 carefully selected trees in the coming years to expand Irvine’s tree canopy coverage.

The City’s other impressive green project includes the establishment of a new 600-acre nature preserve in North Irvine that will connect to the already-popular Jeffrey Open Space Trail. Through a remarkable land deal, Irvine’s largest industrial polluter has been shut down, and in its place, the Gateway Preserve is being created. Throughout the process, the Mayor has thanked “the citizens of Irvine — especially our North Irvine neighbors — who organized themselves and relentlessly insisted and acted on the belief that their city government could and must find a way to stop the pollution and restore the land. And that’s what we’re doing.”

One of the chief complaints among Irvine residents is the City’s traffic. To address the problem, the Irvine CONNECT transit program was established, under the leadership of former Mayor Farrah Khan. The program provides free, non-polluting buses that serve Irvine’s residential neighborhoods. Ridership continues to grow, with more than 186,000 boardings last year. Residents are using the buses to get to school, work, medical appointments, entertainment venues, and shopping centers. Mayor Agran hopes to secure financing to expand the routes throughout the entire city so that “for tens of thousands of lower-income Irvine residents, Irvine CONNECT may actually make it possible to live comfortably and affordably in Irvine without owning a private vehicle.”

During his State of the City address, Mayor Agran revealed: “Over the years, I’ve noticed that amid all of the negativity, partisanship, and even hateful division — mostly emanating from Washington — we tend to take the good things happening right here in Irvine for granted. I just want to take this moment to remind us all that, like most good things in our City, the fact that Irvine is one of the greenest communities in America didn’t happen by accident. It takes many good people working together to accomplish great things. I hope we’ll remember that as we continue toward our ambitious goal to make Irvine the Greenest City in America.