IRVINE : Owners, City Work on Industrial Plan

There’s no confusing the city’s manicured residential villages and gleaming office towers with Construction Circle, a heavy industrial district off Jamboree Road that is home to a rock-crushing plant and waste-hauling operation.

And industrial business owners want keep it that way.

So they are working with city officials to develop what amounts to a preservation plan for the area that proponents hope will protect Construction Circle as residential development sprouts up nearby.

The business leaders fear that noise and traffic generated by the industrial operations will one day bring protests from residents who move into the area--a situation that has forced industrial firms in other cities to leave for more isolated locals.

“This tries to give them a life expectancy,” City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. said of the development agreement that’s being hammered out. “It says that these businesses should not be forced out.”

City officials began working on the agreement earlier this year after the City Council approved construction of a 200-bed single room occupancy hotel across the street from Construction Circle.

Nearby firms opposed the SRO project, fearing hotel residents would complain about noise and pollution from Construction Circle and force reductions in working hours.

The council expressed sympathy for the business owners’ concerns and added a requirement to the SRO project that forces operators to inform prospective tenants that they would live next to an industrial area.

The council also directed staffers to work with the businesses on a city pact that gives owners a measure of a security about their futures.

The agreement being discussed would guarantee that existing zoning regulations stay in place at Construction Circle for at least 10 years.

The draft document states the council’s opposition to any new “burdensome” regulations on the firms. It also supports their right to expand if they met all local, state and federal regulations.

“I’d like to protect them,” Mayor Michael Ward said after the SRO vote. “I think they can coexist” with residents of the SRO.

City staffers are now working with the businesses to finalize the agreement, which is expected to come before the council for a final vote later this summer.