Irvine Delays Discussion of Deal Letting Jail Expand

Irvine’s City Council postponed until next week its consideration of a legal settlement that could clear the way for expansion of the James A. Musick Branch Jail.

Meeting in closed session Thursday, the council voted 5-0 to void its earlier approval of specific points of agreement regarding the settlement and instead to consider the entire matter Tuesday.

“We have ongoing discussions,” Councilman Dave Christensen said after the two-hour meeting, “and Tuesday will hopefully bring a final outcome.”

The county Board of Supervisors has voted to expand the 1,200-bed Irvine jail into a maximum security facility that would house 7,500 inmates. Nearby residents staunchly oppose the plan, and the cities of Irvine and Lake Forest have sued to block it.

Under the proposed settlement, Irvine officials say, the city would drop its lawsuit in exchange for assurances that the Musick jail would become, at the least, a 3,900-bed minimum security jail housing drug offenders and at most, a 4,600-bed facility housing minimum and medium-security inmates.

“We’ve got to protect our citizens as much as we can,” Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea said.

A committee of Irvine and Lake Forest representatives has spent nearly a year scouring remote areas of Orange County for acceptable sites for the jail expansion. Shea said the committee has zeroed in on four possibilities, including one in Freemont Canyon near Orange and two closer to Irvine.

Shea declined to identify the fourth site.

Times correspondent Kristiane M. Ridgway contributed to this report.