Newport Beach : Irvine Co. Granted OK to Build 888 New Units

The Newport Beach City Council on Monday granted final approval for the Irvine Co. to build the 888-unit North Ford Planned Community on the northeast corner of Jamboree Road and Bison Avenue.

Plans call for construction of 172 single-family detached houses, 120 condominiums and 596 apartments on the 125-acre parcel. Grading on the site has been under way since early March, said Dave Dmohowski, government relations manager for the Irvine Co. Construction will begin by late summer, he said.

Also tentatively approved Monday was an Irvine Co. proposal to build “affordable” housing units in a development known as Brisa del Mar in Corona del Mar. Of the 96 apartments the company proposes to build at the site, 84 would be reserved for families with yearly incomes of about $30,000 or less. Rents would be in the range of $670 to $900 a month.

The measure will come before the council for final approval at its next meeting April 8.

During the public hearing before the vote, strong opposition to the building of affordable housing was voiced by half a dozen residents of the adjacent Harbor View development, who complained to the council that the additional residents living in the high-density affordable development would make traffic in the area, already congested, unbearable.

In other action, tensions between the Irvine Co. and a senior citizens group in Corona del Mar were eased when the developer presented the council with a proposal to build about 120 senior-citizen housing units near the center used by senior citizens .

The group was unhappy with an earlier Irvine Co. plan to erect mixed senior/affordable rental units at the company’s Brisa del Mar location. Both sites are part of the Irvine Co.’s proposed 5th Avenue parcels development.

The new plan, tentatively approved by the council, will permit the developer to build 10 to 15 dwellings per buildable acre next to the center. C. Bradley Olson, president of Irvine Community Development Co., told the council the units would probably sell for around $170,000 each to people 55 and older. Dmohowski said the Irvine Co. will present the council with applications and site plans within 90 days.