Proposal by Irvine Co. to Swap Land Picked for Jail Is Confirmed

The Irvine Co. is discussing swapping its land at Gypsum Canyon, which Orange County wants for a 6,191-inmate jail, for county land near El Toro now being used for a branch jail, a law firm confirmed in a letter released Thursday.

The law firm of Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth said in a letter to County Counsel Adrian Kuyper that it has been contacted by the Irvine Co. about representing the company in talks with the county.

The negotiations are “currently in process with the County of Orange concerning the exchange of the existing jail facility site for a new site on property owned by the Irvine Co.,” said the letter from John J. Murphy, an attorney with the Newport Beach-based law firm.

Although the swap of Gypsum Canyon for the land now used by the James A. Musick branch jail had been reported previously, the letter represents the first confirmation by county officials and the company that such an exchange is being negotiated.

R.A. (Bert) Scott, director of the county’s General Services Agency, said the exchange was merely “one possibility.”

“Another possibility is outright purchase,” Scott said. “Another possibility is condemnation.”

Larry Thomas, a spokesman for the Irvine Co., said that negotiations with the county are “in a preliminary stage, with a number of options on the table.”

Thomas and Scott both declined to say how much the Gypsum Canyon and Musick jail sites might be worth.

The supervisors picked Gypsum and Coal canyons as the site for the massive jail on a 3-2 vote in July that sparked an outcry from residents of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda, who complained that their property values would go down, crime in the neighborhood would go up, and the Riverside Freeway and local streets would be crushed with traffic.

A group of residents near the jail is trying to get enough signatures to put an initiative on the ballot next year that would bar the canyons site and require all future jails to be built in Santa Ana.

The Irvine Co. owns the Gypsum Canyon site. Another private landowner owns Coal Canyon.

The supervisors’ decision to pick the canyons included the eventual closing of the Musick branch jail near El Toro and the transfer of inmates from there to the new jail. The Musick jail is near the Irvine Spectrum industrial park, which is being developed by the Irvine Co.