Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/great-park/)
The impending legal battle with the city of Irvine could answer a question: Are government agencies subject to a local city’s land use authority when the agency builds a large commercial project on land it owns inside the city?
The Irvine City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to sue the County of Orange over a huge development plan on 108 acres south of the Great Park, hours after the Board of Supervisors moved forward with the project.
Elizabeth Brown, president of Laguna Greenbelt Inc, writes that Orange County supervisors are thwarting the will of voters by considering a commercial development Tuesday for 100 acres near Irvine’s Great Park, arguing the area should remain largely a wildlife corridor.
The Santa Ana City Council is considering filing a lawsuit against the county – and inviting other cities to join – alleging mismanagement of the millions of dollars in federal homelessness money the county gets each year.
A majority of the council has expressed concern over Supervisor Shawn Nelson’s proposal to open a 200-person homeless shelter on county land near the entrance to the Great Park.
Irvine residents Karen Jaffe and Joe Martinez are urging Irvine City Council members to reduce entitlements and consider traffic in the Veterans’ Cemetery decision slated for this Tuesday
During a Friday press conference at the Great Park, Gov. Jerry Brown spoke to reporters after touring two competing sites for a veterans’ cemetery. While supportive of local decision making, Brown remarked about a site near the I-5 Freeway saying he liked the Strawberry fields. A final decision on the location could be reached by June.
Citizens feel a sense of betrayal and a lost opportunity because botanical gardens seem to have disappeared from the Great Park. But the current city council has the chance to rectify that.
One side favors a 125-acre site on the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station while the other wants to let a developer build it near the intersection of the 5 and 405 freeways.
The city’s high-profile and controversial forensic audit of the Great Park was plagued by poor governance, a lack of auditing standards, and a compromised bidding process, according to a scathing report released by the State Auditor’s office Tuesday.