Newport to Decide Use of 2 Irvine Co. Parcels

The City Council will decide Monday whether to uphold a Planning Commission recommendation that a park be built on an Irvine Co. parcel known as Upper Castaways instead of housing for senior citizens.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously last week to recommend the park plan after listening to more than an hour of public testimony.

The senior housing facility had originally been proposed by the Irvine Co. for its Bayview Landing parcel, which is located at Jamboree Road and Coast Highway.

However, at its Aug. 24 meeting, the City Council recommended that the housing facility be built on the Upper Castaways site, which covers the lower western portion of Upper Newport Bay, and that a park be located on the Bayview Landing site.

The Planning Commission turned around that recommendation, and now it is up to the City Council to decide the fate of the housing facility and the park.

Either location for the senior housing is fine with the Irvine Co., according to Tom Redwitz, vice president of land entitlement. “We can accept either alternative . . . whatever the city and community decide they want to have. We believe that either site is a good site for the affordable senior housing.”

Planning Commissioner Jan Debay said petitions signed by more than 200 residents and arguments made in support of the park on the Castaways site convinced her and other commissioners to vote for it.

The park would encompass five acres of land with a baseball and soccer field, parking and restrooms. The senior housing facility would consist of apartment-type buildings with a maximum of 120 units.

In addition to deciding what to do about the sites, the City Council on Monday night is expected to adopt a comprehensive agreement with the Irvine Co. that allows the firm to eventually build about 950 homes and 124,000 square feet of offices and commercial space on most of the undeveloped land left in the city.