Irvine residents could see a new amphitheater in the Great Park as early as next summer under a new plan approved by the city council last month.
While the new venue wouldn’t be permanent, it would offer concerts and other events for the next three years, at which point it would be replaced by a permanent amphitheater in the center of the park that city staff said could be ready by 2027.
The city’s new temporary venue is a replacement for the FivePoint Amphitheater, which was also set to be temporary when it opened in 2017.
Live Nation, the FivePoint Amphitheater’s operator, closed the venue in October after they said new housing construction near the venue made it impossible to get enough space for parking and other transit.
The closure also came after city council members shot down Live Nation’s proposal to run the permanent amphitheater, opting instead to let any promoter use the spot in an effort to generate more city revenue.
[Read: Irvine Kills Negotiations With Live Nation, Wants Amphitheater to Generate City Revenue]
Great Park Amphitheater Finds New Location
The new temporary amphitheater will sit next to the Great Park Ice and FivePoint Area near the Travata neighborhood, but Great Park Executive Director Pete Carmichael claimed the sound impacts should be minimal because the stage will face away from the neighborhood.
“It’s something we need to look closer at,” Carmichael said, adding that past noise complaints from the FivePoint Amphitheater “arose from the direction of the stage.”
City staff also claimed the amphitheater would break even over its three-year run, but that if it cost more than expected it would be paid for out of the Great Park fund, which receives most of its money from special Mello-Roos property taxes on homes surrounding the park.
[Read: The Great Park Tax: How Irvine Homeowners are Paying for the City’s Big Dreams]
City council members were largely in favor of the new amphitheater, but said they wanted to get more details on it before they pushed ahead with construction.
“This does feel like it’s going a little bit too fast,” said Councilman Mike Carroll. “The idea that maybe we go a little bit slower on something doesn’t seem to me to be the worst thing in the world.”
There were also several complaints raised by local sports teams, who said the development of that lawn would remove space they use for their leagues.
“We feel we haven’t been listened to or are being ignored when it comes to decisions impacting youth sports,” said Ryan Bertoni, president of the city’s Sports Committee who also runs a flag football company.
“It’s important to consider not just the loss of fields but the already existing challenges we have relating to parking, traffic and overall congestion.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.