Irvine : Temporary Restrictions Placed on Business Park

An emergency law restricting development in the 2,300-acre Irvine Business Complex was unanimously approved by the City Council Tuesday night as the first step toward correcting several major planning mistakes in the prestigious business park.

A recent outside audit of city planning practices found that the city grossly exceeded self-imposed development limits in the business complex, which could pose serious traffic problems for the city.

A 1985 environmental impact report estimated that roads in the business park, including land around John Wayne Airport, could handle only traffic generated by 34.5 million square feet of office and industrial development. But the audit found that city planners had approved about 39.5 million square feet in the complex, which is bounded Campus Drive, the Costa Mesa Freeway, Barranca Parkway and San Diego Creek.

The law, city officials said, is needed to give staff members time to examine what went wrong in implementing the Irvine Business Complex plan. Also, new traffic studies will be conducted to determine whether existing and planned roads can handle more than 34.5 million square feet of office space. The 45-day ordinance--which will probably be extended for 10 months when it expires in mid-December--severly restricts new construction, but will not affect any development that has already been approved.

In the year it is expected to take to straighten out planning problems, City Manager William Woollett said, it is highly unlikely that more than 1.3 million square feet of construction will occur in the complex, leaving the city far short of the 34.5-million-square-foot ceiling for the area.

The audit also found that the city failed to collect $5 million in development fees because of accounting errors and poor bookkeeping. Woollett said the city has already begun to recoup that money, including $3.5 million in credits for road improvements by developers.

Although city staff has predicted that planning problems will have little impact on future developments in the complex, Councilman Ray Catalano warned that there is “a very low probability” that current roads in the business park can handle more capacity. Thus, future building in the area may be restricted.