Planners Slow Major Irvine Development

Two large developments the Irvine Co. wants to build near the former El Toro Marine base would generate more than twice the traffic that an airport at El Toro would, prompting fresh concern by Irvine planning commissioners.

One development would convert the company’s remaining strawberry and bean fields into a 10.2-million-square-foot extension of the Irvine Spectrum.

Last month, a Superior Court judge halted planning for that project, saying the city’s environmental review was inadequate.

The other would add 7 million square feet of commercial space and 12,350 homes.

Both projects lie just outside the city’s boundaries and wrap around the northwest corner of the former Marine base. The city hopes to annex the lands, increasing the city’s size by 40%, and the pending decisions are predicated on that prospect.

The developments represent most of the Irvine Co.’s final plans to develop the city within the next 15 to 20 years.

During a hearing last week, three planning commissioners balked at the city’s ambitious schedule for approving the latest project, the Northern Sphere, which includes both proposed developments.

The city’s schedule has the Planning Commission voting on the project in early March, but commissioners said they did not expect to vote until the end of March at the earliest.

Commissioners said they want to be certain that traffic and other impacts have been addressed, particularly given the city’s laser-like scrutiny of every aspect of the county’s airport project.

“Nothing is going to be rushed,” Commissioner Mark Petracca said. “This is the end game. We all have a strong appreciation for the historic importance of this decision. No one is going to push this through.”

Commissioner Ken Hansen said the company has been “in a hurry” to get the two projects approved while the city continues to encourage development around El Toro.

The city added plans for homes and child-care centers around the base in an effort to enlist more allies to fight the proposed airport.

“There shouldn’t be any rush on this,” Hansen said.

Irvine Co. spokesman Mike LeBlanc said the commission’s thoroughness is appropriate. He denied that the company was attempting to rush the approvals.

“We’ve been engaged well over a year working on this,” he said of the Northern Sphere project. “The commissioners need to act when they’re comfortable doing so.”

On March 5, voters will decide whether to replace zoning for an El Toro airport with zoning for a large urban park. That vote could dampen desire for new development around the base.

The Northern Sphere project encompasses 8,150 acres, with development on 3,000 acres. It would add 35,000 residents to the city of 150,000, and generate 255,000 more daily car trips in the area.

The adjacent expansion of the Spectrum--onto 600 acres of agricultural land--would mean an additional 103,000 daily car trips, for a total of 358,000 daily car trips for the two projects.

By comparison, the county’s proposed El Toro airport would generate 176,000 trips a day by 2020. Bob Caustin of the environmental group Defend the Bay, which successfully sued over the Spectrum expansion, called the conversion of so much land into office space “mind-boggling.”

The group said in court that the city’s impact report failed to deal with traffic, pollution and the loss of agricultural land that would be caused by developing the fields.

Development of just that area is projected for 2005 in documents submitted to the city, and would add an average of 2.5 million square feet a year.

Over the past five years, all developers in Orange County combined have built about 3.5 million square feet a year of office and light-industrial space.

Petracca said he wants to review the recommendations of the city’s Transportation and Infrastructure Commission before taking action on the Northern Sphere project. The environmental review of the Spectrum expansion--which was halted by Judge William F. McDonald as a result of Defend the Bay’s suit--also must be reworked and resubmitted.

Commissioner Doug Rapp said he couldn’t vote on the new development until after the comment period ends for the Northern Sphere environmental review. Comments are due Tuesday.

The city’s responses to those concerns also should be considered, Rapp, Petracca and Hansen said; they are due by March 19.

The city’s schedule calls for the planning commission to vote March 7, with City Council approval on March 26.

“I don’t feel like anyone’s pushing me,” Rapp said. “At the end of the day, I’m the one who has to vote. Right now, we’re being asked to look at a very large picture. I don’t want to ever make a decision with a major piece of information missing.”