Purchase of Irvine Co. Land for Eastern Tollway OKd

Foothill / Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency board members on Thursday authorized paying the Irvine Co. up to $101.5 million for 2,170 acres needed to complete the 23-mile Eastern tollway, which will link Anaheim Hills and Irvine.

Tollway agency spokeswoman Lisa Telles said the purchase of the Irvine Co. land was critical, since it accounts for about 98% of the rights of way needed.

When completed, one branch of the four- to six-lane road will run from the Riverside Freeway near Gypsum Canyon Road southward to the Santa Ana Freeway near its intersection with Jamboree Road. From a point near Silverado Canyon Road, a second branch of the tollway will run southeast to connect with the Santa Ana Freeway near Sand Canyon Road.

Transportation agency officials signed a $687-million contract in October with an international consortium that promised to complete the project without cost overruns. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 1996 and be completed by late 1999.

Telles said the agency is expected to sell $1.4 billion worth of bonds in coming weeks to finance the project. She said negotiations for the land purchase took 18 months.

“The board action today gives our chief executive officer the authority to sign a deal with the Irvine Co. not to exceed $101.5 million,” Telles said. “We don’t anticipate any surprises and an agreement should be reached soon.”

Most of the property that the Irvine Co. has agreed to sell is farmland, she added. Agency officials are expected to pay the giant landowner in cash by June 30. On Thursday, board members also approved spending $1.2 million to relocate irrigation lines owned by the Irvine Co.

Agency officials also agreed to spend up to $6.7 million to build a 10-acre maintenance facility for the California Department of Transportation. Under state law, the tollway will be deeded to Caltrans upon completion.

Telles said the agency does not expect any environmental challenges to the tollway because almost all of it will run through land that is now privately owned. “We have all our permits, from the appropriate agencies,” she said.

Some of the land the transportation agency is buying lies close to other parcels owned by the Irvine Co. near Fremont Canyon. The Irvine Co. wants to swap several thousand acres near the canyon to the U.S. Department of the Interior for 850 acres at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Interior Department officials want to preserve the Irvine Co. land as open space.

Last month, Irvine Co. Senior Vice President Monica Florian said the company was willing to make the exchange as long as tollway construction projects were not affected.

“We don’t think that our buying of the property will affect the proposed swap at all,” said Telles.