IRVINE : City to Proceed With Purchase of Open Land

The city is seeking to buy 21 acres of open land now that estimates of maintenance costs for the property have been lowered.

Council members in October declined to approve the open-space purchase, expressing concern about maintenance costs estimated at more than $100,000 a year. Though city planners revised the projection to a range of $6,300 to $37,800 a year, council members put the purchase on hold.

The land stretches from Jeffrey Road to Sand Canyon Avenue, north of the planned extension of Barranca Parkway. Irvine was awarded a $4-million grant to purchase open-space land under the 1988 California Wildlife, Coastal and Park Land Conservation Act.

Irvine Co. owns 18 acres of the open land, and Southern California Edison Co. owns the other three acres.

“We still have to negotiate the price of the land with the Edison Co. and the Irvine Co.,” city planner Brent Cooper said.

Council members approved the purchase of the property after minimum maintenance costs were revised downward again to as little as $1,500 a year. That would pay for weed abatement on a six-acre strip of the property that falls within 50 feet of the Barranca Parkway extension.

If the city chose to turn the property into a greenbelt with lighted walkways, trees and open grassy areas, Cooper said, the maintenance cost would climb to $95,910 a year.

The state must give final approval for the grant-funded purchase, Cooper said, a process that could end up reducing the number of acres purchased.