Irvine residents could soon see a new neighborhood and nature preserve spring up on the northern edge of the city, ending questions on what the future holds for the remains of a controversial asphalt factory and the nearly 800 acres surrounding it.
City leaders reached a deal to shut down the All American Asphalt plant last year, paying out $285 million to the factory’s operators after years of resident complaints that the facility was releasing so much pollutants into their neighborhoods they couldn’t breathe at night.
[Read: Something’s In the Air: Irvine Residents’ Yearslong Battle For Breathable Air]
When city council members decided to turn about 700 acres of land surrounding the factory into a nature preserve, they decided to sell around 70 acres to a developer to offset the costs of purchasing the factory.
Now, city staff believe they’ve found a developer.
Brookfield Residential is offering to take over the property, dubbed the Gateway Village, and build a new neighborhood there, with plans to offer over $600 million for the property, according to a city staff report.
The housing development would be built alongside the nature preserve, which city staff have dubbed the Gateway Preserve, allowing residents to go in and out of it with ease.
In a proposal from Brookfield, there are plans for 927 houses and about 309 apartments that would be pricing restricted to 80% of the city’s median income to help the city meet its affordable housing goals, which would still require owners to make nearly $100,000 a year.
Each house would have an average cost of about $1.4 million, or a combined worth of nearly $1.3 billion.
However, the staff report noted that might change because of how close the new houses would be to a wildfire zone, with state officials expected to expand those zones after several fires in recent years.
“Brookfield is closely monitoring the pending state fire code changes and has incorporated flexibility into its site plan,” staff wrote.
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.
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