Scope, Size of Business Park to Be Weighed

With just three weeks remaining on a year-old emergency ordinance restricting development in the Irvine Business Complex, the City Council on Tuesday has scheduled the first of several meetings to discuss a strategy for the lucrative area near John Wayne Airport.

In the joint 4 p.m. meeting with the city planning and transportation commissions, officials face a decision whether to move ahead with plans that allow 10 million more square feet of development than originally envisioned, or extend the development-restricting law while revising the business complex blueprint.

Local commercial real estate brokers emphasize that in order for the 2,500-acre business complex to succeed, the area should be rezoned to allow more residential and retail projects, in addition to already planned office and industrial development.

This “urban village” concept of blending retail and residential uses with office high-rises has been panned by the current council majority of Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan, Councilman William A. (Art) Bloomer and Councilman Barry J. Hammond. They contend that residential growth should be focused on the city’s housing tracts.

But experts disagree, citing market demands that show a need for homes and shopping areas mixed into the workplace.

“I think it’s time that the retail (businesses) and residential apartments start taking place here,” said Larry Scher of Irvine-based Scher Voit Co., a commercial real estate brokerage firm located within the business complex. “I know a lot of people are interested in seeing it as a great example of Irvine being a city on the move.”

Already, more than 3,500 housing units are approved for the business complex area--1,442 of them in the Park Place apartment project under construction by the William Lyon Co.

However, conceptual urban village plans under study by the previous council called for up to 28,000 more residential units, housing 100,000 people, to be located in high-rise buildings shared with offices and storefronts.

Plans showed these buildings linked by pedestrian walkways and mass-transit routes that would virtually eliminate local automobile trips. Also suggested was the much-ballyhooed idea for a grand street like Paris’ Champs Elysees, along the mirrored high-rises and palm trees lining Von Karman Avenue.

Bloomer said it is not probable that the current council, viewed as more conservative than its predecessor, would support 28,000 housing units in the city’s downtown. But he acknowledged the economic demands of a market that is already glutted with high-rise office space.

“Some mix of residential and industrial uses is appropriate,” Bloomer said, speculating that the council probably would take several months to create a plan that would prevent piecemeal development.

The overall slowing trend in the commercial development industry could also be a boon to the council’s decision-making process, said J. Clark Booth, first vice president of Coldwell Banker Commercial in Newport Beach.

“People are not going to be banging on the door to build high-tech buildings,” Booth said. “The whole market may be working well for the city. . . . They have a time period in which to reflect.”

Irvine principal planner Seda Yaghoubian said Tuesday’s presentation will include the urban village concept, the existing development blueprint and a third idea she called a “nodal plan.”

Yaghoubian said the latter plan simply establishes major developments in the business complex as nodes, or hub areas, that could be linked with landscaped walkways and mass-transit routes. This plan initially focuses on the area along the San Diego Freeway, roughly bounded by Jamboree Road, Michelson Drive, MacArthur Boulevard and Main Street.

Despite the city’s reputation for being impeccably well-planned, the business complex in the past decade has been plagued by complicated land-use laws and a confusing point system for development approvals. This led previous councils to unknowingly approve nearly 10 million more square feet of construction than the 48.25 million square feet allowed by the general plan.