Westpark II Back for Round 2 With Irvine Planning Commission : Development: The Irvine Co. and city planners will resume talks on 3,626-home project.

The Irvine Co. will resubmit plans tonight for a 3,626-home development in a field east of the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station.

“It’s the only thing on the agenda and we expect it to be a long discussion,” associate planner Rick Sandzimier said.

The Planning Commission will hold the first of what probably will be several public hearings on the company’s proposal to extend Westpark Village north past Barranca Parkway and up to Irvine Center Drive.

Westpark, which is about 75% complete, is the latest residential “village” to be built in Irvine. The Westpark addition, called Westpark II, would almost double the size of the current Westpark Village, Irvine Co. spokeswoman Dawn McCormick said. The development would house about 7,250 residents, increasing Irvine’s population by about 7%.

Plans for Westpark II include five community parks and space set aside for two elementary schools and two day-care centers. Warner Avenue would be extended through the new tract to link Culver Drive with Harvard Avenue.

The Irvine Co. submitted the original plans for Westpark II in 1987, but withdrew them from Planning Commission consideration in January over uncertainties about the city’s low-income housing requirements.

The amount and type of low-income housing needed in the area continues to be the company’s main disagreement with city planners, but officials are close to working out a compromise, McCormick said.

Other concerns include space allocated for day-care centers and fears of health problems related to the 220-kilovolt power lines that run along the west end of the planned community.

One issue planners hope to start resolving is the size of the area surrounding the power lines from which construction should be excluded, Sandzimier said. Southern California Edison owns a 130-foot wide easement for power lines along Harvard Avenue.

Power lines generate strong electromagnetic fields, which some research has linked to cancer and immune and nervous system damage in people living near the lines, according to a staff report on the proposed project.

Although only about nine acres of the 349-acre Westpark II project possibly would be affected by the magnetic fields, scientific studies are inconclusive on what level of electromagnetism is considered safe, he said.

City planners will recommend that no buildings be allowed inside an area registering more magnetism than the level found in the average home, Sandzimier said.

As part of that proposal, planners will recommend that Edison be required to study the magnetic fields and find the area where magnetism is stronger than 4 milligauss. According to Edison, that is the amount found in the average home, Sandzimier said.

Affordable housing also will be on the agenda.

The company had withdrawn its plans because the city was in the midst of revising its requirements, McCormick said. Rather than go ahead with the project and revise it later to meet the new standards, the company chose to delay the development, she said.

Irvine’s general plan has been updated to require that 25% of all new housing be affordable to low-income residents, defined as families earning less than 80% of the county’s median income. Based on 1989 figures, a family of four earning $37,520 a year or less is classified as low-income.

The Irvine Co.’s plan originally included only 10% of the units to be affordable to low-income families, while an additional 15% of the units would be priced for “moderate income” residents, those earning between 80% and 120% of the county’s median income.

According to the staff report to the Planning Commission, planners will present a compromise proposal emphasizing housing for very-low-income residents (a family of four earning $23,450 or less) with a provision for the company to convert existing apartments outside of Westpark II to meet low-income requirements.

Space for child-care centers also will be discussed. The company has proposed building two facilities of one acre each, but city planners are recommending 1 1/2 acres be set aside for each of them.

Planning Commissioner Kate Clark said Wednesday she will recommend that the commissioners also ask for 1 1/2 acres. Clark will be only one of two commissioners returning to the panel tonight. With a new mayor and two new council members elected in June, they have each appointed new members to serve on the Planning Commission.

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers. The public hearing on Westpark II already is scheduled to be continued to the Aug. 16 meeting to allow additional testimony from residents.