Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/orange-county-great-park/)
Irvine City Council members voted to establish a new tax district in the Orange County Great Park on Tuesday night, expanding the total potential bond amount in the park neighborhoods to just over $1.1 billion.
While residents in the Great Park Neighborhoods are paying millions of dollars every year towards the development of infrastructure in the Park, many don’t know where their tax dollars are going.
While city officials have touted the Park as the most transparent project of its type, questions still remain about how public money is being spent to develop Orange County’s largest public works project.
Irvine’s city council members tonight will vote to consider whether to establish a new tax district in the Orange County Great Park, pushing the total amount of potential bonds to over one billion dollars if approved by the council.
Homeowners in Irvine’s Great Park neighborhoods are currently on the hook for over half a billion dollars in debt to build Orange County’s most iconic public works project, and the total cost for the project could come out at as much as $2 billion according to projections.
A firm that conducted two separate Great Park audits — and came under fire from two state officials over the audits — surrendered its accounting license Monday after a settlement with the State Board of Accountancy.
Though the future of the Great Park remains uncertain, the Irvine-based Arts Complex is celebrating nine years with confidence.
City Council members voted but it’s ultimately homeowners in the Great Park neighborhood who will fund the stadium, estimated by the local developer at about $200 a month for each homeowner. Officials have apparently been privately discussing the plan for several years. Great Park developer, Five Point Holdings, is scheduled to come back with a plan for public review in February.
Harvey Liss, who is Editor of Irvine Community News & Views, writes that it is time for the Irvine City Council to finally fulfill the will of the people and move forward with the Southern California Veterans Cemetery at the original 125-acre ARDA site in the Great Park.
Board of Accountancy Executive Officer Patti Bowers beefed up a 2018 complaint against the Great Park auditors in an attempt to have the Board of Accountancy revoke the licenses of the auditors for mismanagement of two park audits.