IRVINE : Northwood Village Project Hearings Set

The Irvine Co.’s proposal to build 2,885 homes that would extend the current Northwood Village on the northern outskirts of the city will have its first major public hearing tonight before the Planning Commission.

Another Irvine Co. subdivision, the 3,800-home Westpark II approved by the City Council last December, is stalled by a referendum that will let voters decide the fate of the project in November.

The slow-growth group that led that opposition, Irvine Tomorrow, will also be keeping an eye on the proposed Northwood project, chairman Christopher B. Mears said Wednesday.

“We have enormous concern with that development,” Mears said, since it will destroy an orange grove and replace it with thousands of homes.

The proposal before the Planning Commission’s 6 p.m. meeting calls for a 416-acre community with a mixture of single-family homes, townhouses and apartments. Areas would be set aside for a school, parks, church, a child-care center, park-and-ride site and a 150,000-square-foot commercial center.

The current proposal is a compromise between the project submitted by the Irvine Co. and modifications recommended by city planners after a three-year review process that is typical for a project of this size.

Initially, the Irvine Co. opposed adding a commercial center. But the company changed its mind after residents of the existing Northwood Village and city planners requested one, according to Keith Greer, president of the Irvine Co.’s residential building division. The center is now planned for the southeast corner of the future intersection of Culver Drive and Portola Parkway.

As part of the project, the Irvine Co. would build the proposed Portola Parkway to link Jamboree and Jeffrey roads. Portola would run along the northern boundary of the project.

The proposed village, which has been dubbed Northwood 5 because it is inside the city’s planning area No. 5, is just outside of Irvine’s city limits but within the area destined to become a part of the city. The land likely would be annexed once plans for the village are approved.

As proposed, three-fourths of Northwood 5 would contain houses and townhouses ranging in price from about $500,000 for the houses with larger lots to about $250,000 for the townhouses, Greer said.

Although the Irvine Co. and city planners have worked out most differences concerning Northwood 5, some such as affordable housing requirements are still being studied, said Stephanie Keys, an Irvine senior planner.

The city’s planning goals propose that 25% of the homes in each new village should be affordable to families earning 80% or less of the county’s median income, which is $56,380 for 1991 as predicted by the Chapman College Center for Economic Research. But to what extent those goals are translated into requirements is expected to be a major point of discussion during the hearings.

Affordable-housing requirements were a point of contention during the Planning Commission and City Council hearings on Westpark II last year.

There will be three or so public hearings for Northwood 5 conducted by the Planning Commission, including two next month. The commission’s recommended changes for the village will then go to the City Council for consideration.