IRVINE : Irvine Co. Rebuts Hotel Opponents

The developer of a proposed Hyatt Hotel and resort for the Irvine coastal area has asked county supervisors to reject an appeal by a local housing group and approve the project when the board meets today.

In a letter to Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez and other top county officials, the Irvine Co. says the appeal--filed by the HOUSING NOW! Coalition after the Orange County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the project in March--threatens to destroy a delicate compromise for building the $140-million resort.

“The Coalition does not understand the planning and environmental framework of the Irvine Coast and makes unsubstantiated allegations regarding the potential impacts of the Hyatt Resort,” Ed Mountford, the company’s entitlement manager, says in the letter.

The HOUSING NOW! Coalition has charged that the plans for the hotel will create a demand for hundreds of low-income workers but won’t supply adequate housing for them. The result, said Tim Carpenter, a spokesman for the coalition, would be an imbalance of jobs and housing that would add to congestion on freeways and deterioration of local air quality.

As the Irvine Co. was firing its last-minute salvo, Costa Mesa Mayor Mary Hornbuckle joined Carpenter and others in opposing the proposed resort, sending a letter to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district the proposed project would be in.

In it, Hornbuckle expresses the city’s “extreme concern” over the project. Many of the hotel workers would probably live in Costa Mesa, Hornbuckle argues, and that would could cause “additional strains” on the city’s limited supply of affordable housing.

Opponents plan to present more than half a dozen speakers at today’s meeting. Project backers are expected to be on hand as well.

The board’s vote will decide the project’s fate.