Irvine Co. Lawsuit Reveals Hypocrisy

* Your story, “Irvine Co. Loses $40-Million Suit to Lion Country” (Nov. 6) really brought things into perspective. It seems that the Irvine Co. repeatedly thwarted plans which would have brought badly needed income to a company that is obligated to a 28-year lease on 300 acres previously home to Lion County Safari. The reason given by the Irvine Co. for its unsuccessful refusal to allow some of the proposals by the lessee was that they “feared that the site would become overdeveloped and would bring in thousands of visitors daily, thereby tying up traffic and causing various other problems as South Orange County grew.”

I find this nothing short of hypocrisy coming from a company that has just destroyed most of the orange trees in Orange County and has plans for building almost 7,000 homes in Irvine alone. Apparently, if the Irvine Co. doesn’t benefit, it’s called overdevelopment.

JOYCE KUSHNER

Irvine