ORANGE : City Solicits Ideas for 37-Acre Tract
The Santiago Creek Greenway Alliance and the city are sponsoring a meeting Thursday to discuss alternatives to developing the site of the former Santiago Golf Course, the last large tract of open space downtown.
The public will be asked to offer ideas for how the 37-acre property, last slated for development of a shopping center and gated community, might be used as open space. A consultant from Urban Edges Inc., a design and planning firm which specializes in open spaces and greenbelts will review the project site and present some of the preliminary design options for the property. A slide show will demonstrate how other communities have turned drainage areas into greenbelts.
Last August, the city denied a Burnett-Ehline Co./William Lyon Co. proposal to build 160 single-family homes and a commercial strip on the site after residents protested, saying the property should be maintained as open space. In November, the City Council gave $10,000 to the Santiago Creek Greenway Committee to help pay for a consultant to explore development alternatives.
Community activists hope the land will become a link in a greenbelt that will stretch along Santiago Creek from Irvine Lake to the Santa Ana River.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
