Irvine City Council members are expected to discuss an open space preservation ballot measure during their meeting Tuesday night — a potential special election that could clear the way for the Irvine Company to replace Oak Creek Golf Club with thousands of housing units.
Over the past few months, council members have been in the early stages of discussing what could become Irvine’s final residential village, known as Oak Park.
The Irvine Company’s preliminary proposal includes 3,100 housing units, a new school, parks and other community spaces at the golf course site. As part of the proposed project, the Irvine Company is also expected to give the city 315 acres of permanent open space in the Orchard Hills and Portola Springs villages in return for developing at the golf course.
But Irvine residents have been ringing alarm bells that this proposal violates the golf course’s preservation as permanent open space, a designation passed by voters in 1988.
During an election in the summer of 1988, Irvine voters approved Initiative Resolution 88-1, which included a map outlining various areas across the city deemed “conservation/open space.”
The golf course is listed as one of these areas.
[Read: Irvine’s Oak Creek Golf Club Could Become Housing, Does it Go Against a Voter Initiative?]
Critics argue that since voters originally chose to preserve the golf course as open space in 1988, it should either remain that way forever, or the item should appear on a future ballot if the council wants to remove the preservation designation.
Irvine City Attorney Jeff Melching has argued that the city has a legal right to remove the golf course’s preservation designation without voter approval because of the way Initiative Resolution 88-1 is worded.
Some council members disagree — instead arguing that the public must first approve the change if the council wants to build housing in this area that many residents assumed would be open space forever.
[Read: Is Irvine Going to Ask Voters for Approval to Develop a Golf Course into Housing?]
Voters might get the chance to weigh in during a special election in November if the council moves forward with an open space ballot measure, agendized for the council’s meeting on July 22.
According to the agenda report, staff is seeking direction about the ballot measure’s timing and content.
One idea discussed in the staff report would confirm, expand and update the city’s inventory of protected open space to include new lands that the city has acquired since 1988 and prevent non-open space development in these areas without voter approval.
But those added protections wouldn’t extend to the golf course, according to the staff report, effectively allowing residential development on this site.
“The 2025 Ballot Measure could update the inventory of protected open space to include all of these lands and expressly prohibit any non-open space development on these lands absent voter approval,” reads the staff report.
“That voter approval requirement would not extend to the privately-owned Oak Creek Golf Course, so long as the City becomes entitled to receive into public ownership at least 315 acres of compensating open space.”
Staff has identified Nov. 18 as the most appropriate date to hold the special election, if approved by the council. It’s expected to cost approximately $1.7 million, according to estimations from the Orange County Registrar of Voters included in the agenda report.
Mayor Larry Agran, who was also mayor in 1988 when the resolution was originally approved, said the council must consult the voters on this issue during a council meeting on June 24.
“The only way that [open space designation] can be changed is if the people of the city of Irvine approved a subsequent ballot measure,” Agran said at that meeting. “My belief is that that’s the way we have to play it. We have to play it straight. My view is that we need to be faithful to what we said at the time.”
Councilmembers James Mai and Mike Carroll agreed at that meeting.
City staff are in the process of evaluating the proposed project, including environmental analysis, which is expected to last about 12 to 18 months.
The city council meets next on Tuesday night beginning at 5 p.m. The open space preservation ballot measure item is listed last on the agenda.
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.