Irvine Council Adamant on Growth Suits : Will Continue Assault With Laguna Against Developer Accords

The Irvine City Council reaffirmed Tuesday its commitment to sue the county Board of Supervisors over recent developer agreements, despite protests from several citizens who complained that the city is wasting taxpayers’ money.

The city last month joined with Laguna Beach in filing suit in Orange County Superior Court against the constitutionality of the supervisors’ February approval of three major housing developments in unincorporated areas near Irvine.

The two cities contend that the developer agreements under which those projects would be built circumvent a countywide slow-growth initiative on the June 7 ballot.

The city was also involved in a lawsuit filed by private developers seeking to block the slow-growth initiative. Irvine joined with the pro-initiative Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control in fighting that suit. A state Court of Appeal panel rejected the suit earlier this month.

In a council meeting Tuesday night, some Irvine citizens angrily demanded that the council withdraw from all the litigation.

‘Misuse of City Funds’

“I think this is a total misuse of city funds,” said Irvine resident Mark Roy, 36.

Resident Scott Vanatter, 34, said: “We are, like, suing ourselves, (because) I am a member of Orange County. Let’s stop this mess.”

Some residents took issue with the amount of money being allocated by the city for the lawsuit.

Although the council at an earlier meeting had placed a cap of $10,000 on payment of legal fees, Assistant City Manager Paul Brady Jr. reported that the fees may already exceed that amount by up to $10,000. And Mayor Larry Agran acknowledged that the costs could go higher if the developers continue to challenge the initiative. Agran said much of the city’s legal expense has gone toward fighting attempts to thwart the initiative.

“It’s largely in the hands of very highly paid law firms retained by developers who would like to grind us down,” Agran said.

The council voted 3 to 2 after a closed session to lift the cap on spending to an unspecified amount. Councilwoman Sally Anne Miller and Councilman C. David Baker voted against continuing the spending. Council members Agran, Ray Catalano and Edward A. Dornan voted to lift the cap.

Duffy Riebe, a real estate agent representing the pro-development Irvine Pride citizen group, told the council that the city has no business trying to foist its slow-growth stance on the rest of the county.

“We should recognize that Irvine is but one part of this county and cannot arrogantly instruct its neighboring cities and governments to ‘do it the Irvine way’ or else,” Riebe said.

Riebe said that, besides wasting taxpayers’ money, the city’s suit is alienating Irvine from the rest of the county, making it virtually an outcast.

“The only other city in the county similarly thought of, I’m told, is Laguna Beach, which has been building its bad reputation for years,” Riebe said. “A few more mindless lawsuits from this city, and we may surpass Laguna Beach.”

Miller said the litigation is further isolating Irvine from political decisions made by the rest of the county.

“I see proceeding with the litigation as costly and divisive,” she said.

However, Agran defended the suit as necessary to preserve the democratic process of a voters’ initiative.

“Somebody’s got to defend democracy,” Agran said, “and I’m proud to say Irvine is doing that.”