IRVINE : High-Rise/Monorail Agreement Delayed

The City Council on Tuesday delayed for two weeks a vote on an agreement that would guarantee timely construction of a high-rise project that includes the first half-mile leg of a potential countywide monorail system.

Despite a city law limiting new construction in the Irvine Business Complex, city officials said they will support a development agreement, scheduled to be brought back to the council July 10. If approved, the development agreement will guarantee that McDonnell Douglas Realty Co. will receive building permits for construction of two 23-story office towers, a restaurant and 86 homes.

The agreement with the firm was delayed Tuesday so that the city attorney could determine whether a proposed revision to the project--relocating some retail space from the basement level to ground level--would require additional environmental review.

The rush to get building permits for the proposed development hinges on an August deadline to lay the monorail tracks from John Wayne Airport to the office towers before completion of an ongoing airport expansion project, officials said. If a foundation for the monorail is not installed by then, the futuristic transportation project is in jeopardy of being scrapped.

The two-week delay will not affect plans to install the tracks, a McDonnell Douglas spokesman said.

Further complicating the situation is an urgency ordinance enacted last October by the council that says new development in the Irvine Business Complex, a 2,500-acre commercial area south of John Wayne Airport, is limited to a total of 48 million square feet on a first-come, first-served basis, senior planner Stephanie Keys said.

With development already nearing that amount, McDonnell Douglas Realty Co. officials wanted the agreement to ensure that city planners would reserve space for the firm’s 828,000-square-foot project for the next 10 years, Keys said.

The council approved the project plans last month and granted the firm 195,000 extra square feet of development in exchange for building monorail tracks from the airport to the the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Douglas Street. However, that action approved only the building plans and did not guarantee that the firm would be able to circumvent the business complex growth restrictions.

The privately funded, half-mile monorail link has been touted as crucial for a planned 4.5-mile loop around the Irvine Business Complex. The system could be expanded 10 miles south to the Irvine Spectrum development and linked to nearby cities.

The city will receive $125 million in state matching funds for such a monorail project under Proposition 116, a $1.9-million bond measure recently approved to raise funds for light rail transportation.

Under the plans approved by the council last month, McDonnell Douglas will build the second office tower only after completion of the monorail, scheduled to be finished in 1992. The firm must also contribute $100,000 toward a study on the impact of the monorail on traffic.