Irvine Co. Plans Early Openings of Its Parkland : Environment: About 19,000 acres of land held in reserve could be available for public recreation soon under proposals announced on the eve of Earth Day.

After years of denying public access to land being held in reserve for future parks, the Irvine Co. announced Thursday that it soon hopes to swing open its gates to hikers, bikers, bird-watchers and picnickers who otherwise might have to wait more than a decade.

In addition, the company announced--at a press conference three days before the nation marks Earth Day--that it is considering making improvements to thousands of acres of its dedicated parkland. New trails, parking lots, restrooms and other amenities will make the areas usable by the public, officials said.

Some areas may even get an environmental tuneup, as the company is also considering a tree-planting program.

Local environmentalists, some of whom have long tangled with the company over its development plans, quickly hailed the proposals unveiled Thursday, even though they will not result in the dedication of more open space.

Opening already dedicated lands will give county residents a huge new park and recreation resource, county officials and environmentalists said. Once-forbidden areas abundant in wildlife, spectacular rock formations and acres of verdant terrain could be open within a few years, instead of a decade or more, they added.

“This will give people an opportunity to enjoy open space that would otherwise have been closed for years,” said Ginny Chester, former president of the Sea and Sage Audubon Society. “We could be making good use of that space rather than simply letting it sit there.”

Carol Hoffman, the company’s vice president of community relations, said the move represents a significant departure for the Irvine Co., which has never allowed the public on its dedicated properties.

“Our concerns about liability and conflicts with existing uses such as cattle grazing have historically led us to discourage access,” Hoffman said in a prepared statement. “However, we believe that increased public interest justifies a reassessment of our approach.”

A total of about 19,000 acres will be considered, some of which will likely remain off limits to the public for conservation reasons. The land under consideration includes 4,000 acres on the Irvine Coast and 5,000 more in Limestone Canyon, a ravined open space north of Irvine that hosts an array of wildlife and hundreds of oak trees. Those have remained closed to the public even though the company has already agreed to turn them over to the county in return for the right to develop other tracts.

The properties are scheduled to be turned over in phases, with the timing linked to the pace of development in other areas. Even after they are available to the county, however, long delays can result as the county sometimes hesitates to accept land because it increases the government’s liability and maintenance costs.

In the northern reaches of the company’s property, thousands more acres remain to be considered. Of those, an estimated 6,000 acres are expected to be devoted to open space, but the extent and boundaries of those areas remain undecided.

Hoffman said the company hopes to work with area governments and environmental groups to develop plans for enhancing and opening sections of the dedicated lands as soon as possible. Meetings will likely begin within the next several weeks, she said, and the company expects to complete an implementation plan by the end of the year.

“The first area we will likely focus on for achieving early public access is the Newport coast,” she said. “Our goal will be to identify how best to open up this area to the public on an accelerated basis, keeping in mind the sensitive nature of much of the land.”

That property stretches across ridgelines and deep valleys dotted with wildlife, including deer, bobcats and other small mammals. Also referred to as the Irvine Coast, it adjoins Crystal Cove State Park near Laguna Beach and has long been the object of discussions between the Irvine Co. and environmental groups.

Fern Pirkle, president of Friends of the Irvine Coast, welcomed the news that the area may soon be open to the public. “That’s something we’ve been looking toward for some time,” she said.

Amid mostly positive reaction from local leaders, however, there were a few notes of caution. Irvine Co. officials said they hope to have the Nature Conservancy, a nationally known environmental protection group, participate in formation of the plan, but Sally Smith, a spokeswoman for the organization, said discussions about its role remain “in the preliminary stages.”

“We try to work with any variety of people, developers included,” she said. “But we want to see what it is they have in mind before we commit to the project.”

If the conservancy participates, Smith added, it would likely be to conduct a biological survey of the dedicated lands in order to determine whether opening any of them might cause damage to endangered species.