TUSTIN : Builder Will Lower Project’s Density

The developer proposing to build apartments and single-family homes on 40 acres of land in the east Tustin area agreed this week to lower the housing density planned for that property and to drop plans to build on a nearby 31-acre site, city officials said.

Dozens of residents have urged the City Council at past meetings to reject Irvine Co.’s proposal, saying the it would put more apartments in the area than are permitted under the East Tustin Specific Plan.

Residents argued that a higher number of apartments in the area--bounded roughly by the Santa Ana Freeway, the Orange city limits, Jamboree Road and Browning Avenue--would create traffic and crime problems.

The City Council said this week it will ask the Planning Commission to review the revised plan, which could come back to the council for possible approval as soon as October, officials said.

Under the new proposal, Irvine Co. would develop a 40-acre parcel along Bryan Avenue and Tustin Ranch Road that the Tustin Unified School District had previously intended to use as a high school site.

According to documents filed with the city, the company will change its zoning request from “medium-high,” density to “medium and medium-low,” which would allow fewer residents to live there. A 3.6-acre park would also be incorporated into the plans.