Irvine Council Bows to Protests, Rejects Quail Hill Civic Center Site

A storm of community opposition prodded the Irvine City Council to abandon plans to build its proposed $30-million civic center on Quail Hill, considered one of the most scenic undeveloped landscapes in the city and along the San Diego Freeway.

Instead, the council voted 5 to 0 to designate a spot at Barranca Parkway and San Diego Creek as the preferred site for a new city hall. There it would share 60 acres with a community park.

The standing-room-only crowd applauded when Mayor Dave Sills declared that there was “no sentiment among the council members” for the controversial Quail Hill site.

About-Face Position

It was an about-face for four council members who, last November, pushed to consider Quail Hill as the leading contender for a permanent civic center. Councilman Larry Agran, who voted against the Quail Hill site at that time, led an outpouring of opposition from residents of the nearby University Park community.

When the Quail Hill site was up for final consideration in late January, residents of University Park and other areas in Irvine jammed the council chambers to voice their opposition. The council expanded a special task force to include members of seven homeowner associations. This week, the task force, by a bare majority of 5 to 4, recommended the selection of Quail Hill, which is on more than 400 acres of rolling hills and rocky outcroppings now used primarily as grazing land.

But the task force report acknowledged that significant opposition could persuade council members to look elsewhere, and it made a second-choice recommendation of the Barranca Parkway site in a proposed development known as Village 14.

Despite suggestions from Mayor Sills that it would not be necessary for those in the audience opposed to the Quail Hill site to express their opposition, many who stayed for the public hearing took the opportunity anyway.

“Our village needs open space and wildlife habitats to help University Park remain serene,” 13-year-old Scott Keil, Vista Verde Middle School student body president , read from a school petition.

Author of Petition

Keil, concerned about the migratory Canadian geese that stop on the rolling hillsides and about the traffic that would be generated by a civic center near his neighborhood, drafted the petition about two weeks ago on his own initiative. He collected 280 signatures from fellow students.

Sally Anne Miller was the only council member to express a preference for Quail Hill. Her comments generated a rumble of disapproval from the thinning crowd, and she later voted with the council majority.