Coalition wants Great Park built now
August 22, 2013
By GUY LEMMON / GUEST COLUMNIST
Did you know the city of Irvine has been offered a privately funded gift of $174 million (July 2 letter to Mayor Steven Choi from FivePoint Chief Executive Office Emile Haddad) for immediate use to complete 660 unimproved acres of the Great Park? City committees and staff have been evaluating this plan for more than nine months, but do not have it calendared for public evaluation and approval.
The proposal has very specific details including a fully designed array of world-class athletic fields, wildlife corridors, open passive park areas and a golf course. The timelines and cost estimates are done, contractors are identified, EIR reports are filed, environmental groups are satisfied, numerous committee meetings have been completed, and most importantly the money exists. Further, FivePoint Communities representatives have told me local environmental groups, and the Irvine Chamber of Commerce and its hotel association want this plan enacted now.
The Great Park Balloon is seen through the palm trees of Palm Court at the Great Park in Irvine. Irvine is seeking an eight-figure cash infusion for the Great Park – potentially $40 million – because of changes to the housing development plans that would result in denser home construction and encroach on the proposed canyon, among other things. In addition, officials say they want to turn the train station area into a downtown for Irvine and acknowledge that the park is likely to ultimately feature more than 10,000 homes, double what is now on the table.
This truly can be a public-private partnership of monumental proportions. The Great Park can get built now….Finally!
The city has had the details long enough. Let’s get this approved. This proposal should be heard by the public at the next Irvine Planning Commission Sept. 5, and then voted on by the City Council soon thereafter.
There is a sad underperforming history of the Great Park build out. About nine years ago the city took control of the park’s development and received $200 million to design and build the park. Yet some council members have recently acknowledged spending virtually all that money with little of the park developed and no capability of finishing the park.
The design, the funds and a better mechanism is luckily in place to get the park built and get it done, now. Let’s start this public-private partnership with the next Planning Commission hearing.
Some of my Irvine friends and I have recently founded Build the Great Park Now – our initial group includes representatives from numerous Irvine athletic youth groups including baseball, softball, soccer, and football. Our group is coming together to urge the mayor and City Council to put the community first and fulfill the promise of building the “finest sports park in America” made nine years ago. We have waited long enough! Build the Great Park now!
– Guy Lemmon, a resident of Irvine for 39 years and chairman of a newly formed coalition of Irvine youth sports representatives, parents and residents who want the city to accept the $174 million gift from Five Points Communities (the master developer of the entire great park neighborhood of homes, commercial and retail projects). For more information, go to www.buildthegreatparknow.com
You can read the opinion piece by Guy Lemmon in the Orange County Register:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/park-522383-city-great.html
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