Irvine : Day-Care Center, Theater Added to Bond Issue Plan

A $1.2-million child-care facility and a 750-seat theater will be included in a proposed bond issue that would pay for Irvine’s new Civic Center, to be built at Barranca Road and Harvard Avenue.

In a 4-1 vote Tuesday, the City Council approved a plan to incorporate the $8- million Performing Arts Center, approved by voters in 1975, into the $78-million bond issue proposed to pay for the 150,000-square-foot City Hall.

The city has drafted tentative plans to incorporate a 5,000-square-foot child-care center into its City Hall. The facility, which would also include 5,000 square feet of playgrounds and parking, would be the first of its kind in Orange County. The day-care center would be owned by the city and operated by a private, nonprofit agency. It would be designed to serve 100 youngsters who are children of city employees or of Irvine residents.

Because the city theater would be on the UC Irvine campus, the council also directed the Planning Commission to consult with university administrators to find a way for UC Irvine to help defray the theater’s annual operating expenses, estimated at $300,000. In addition, a study to determine whether the city can levy a maximum 5% entertainment tax on all events in Irvine drawing audiences of more than 1,000 was approved in the vote.

When Irvine voters approved the theater plan 10 years ago, no site had been picked for the facility, which was to have seated 250 people, said Jeff Niven, manager of fiscal services. The theater vote had been part of a 15-item bond act, but other more pressing projects kept the theater from getting off the ground, he said.

However, $1.5 million of principal earmarked for the original theater has been in the bank for a decade and will be used to help pay for the performing arts center’s construction, estimated at more than $8 million. “We’re maintaining the integrity of what the voters approved of in 1975,” Niven said.

In addition to the Civic Center, theater and child care facility, the $78-million bond issue, to come before the council in June, would provide funds for street improvements and five acres of open space for eventual expansion of the city’s corporate yard.