Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/orange-county-great-park/)
As residents of the Great Park area have started asking for more representation in the development of Orange County’s largest civic construction project.
In a unanimous vote, the council requested more regular updates from Five Point Holdings, their partner in developing the Park, stating that their current communication was failing to inform the council and the public.
After a Voice of OC investigation looked into how local Irvine homeowners are financing one of Orange County’s most iconic regional public works projects, city officials sent out several public critiques, both directly to homeowners and on the city website.
Nearly a decade after the water park closed in 2011, the Irvine City Council voted to approve a new lease agreement for the Orange County attraction.
Over the past six years, Irvine City Council members approved nearly $1 Billion in potential bond indebtedness for the Orange County Great Park neighborhoods with less than five minutes of public discussion.
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.