Closer Look -- The gift of land itself

Paul Clinton

Irvine Co. CEO Donald Bren’s decision to set aside 11,000 acres of

Orange County land as permanent open space was a grand finale of sorts.

The eventual setting aside of the land -- huge strips of undeveloped

property in Laguna Canyon and the Santa Ana foothills -- would be the

culmination of more than 100 years of land gifts and deals between the

Irvine Co. and various public agencies.

It all stretches back to James Irvine II’s “gift munificent” of land

in 1897 that became the Irvine Regional Park, near Orange.

“Donald, in what he has done, has carried on the traditions of the

family,” said heiress Joan Irvine Smith, whose public battles with Bren

for control of the company were front-page news in the early 1990s. “This

is certainly what my grandfather would have wanted.”

Company planners have used the master plan for Irvine Ranch, a

93,000-acre strip of land making up one-fifth of the county, as the

primary blueprint for deciding how to parcel out parkland and open space

among the dozens of planned communities in the area.

“The whole topic of open space has always been a key topic in our

master planning,” said Senior Vice President Monica Florian. “What we

have done here [with the gift] is the culmination of that type of

thinking, how important it is to have large open space.”

Of course, the company has had its share of detractors, including

those like Newport Beach environmentalist Bob Caustin, who say the

company’s projects have contributed to the county’s traffic congestion,

runoff problems and urban crowding.

Caustin, who founded Defend the Bay, has criticized the company’s lack

of filtering systems for water runoff from the housing.

“They just use gravity to hold things back,” Caustin said. “Much of

the sediment that’s in the Back Bay is from Irvine Co. developments.”

Public development of the Irvine Ranch began in 1960, when the family

announced a 1,000-acre donation of land for what would become UC Irvine.

Even in the late 19th century, the Irvine family struggled with

balancing development and open space. While Smith’s grandfather set up

Irvine Regional Park, he also plowed under a grove of sycamore trees for

Santiago Dam.

Nowhere is that balance -- some would say conflict -- more apparent

than in the city that bears the family name and in neighboring Newport

Beach.

In the decades since Irvine Smith’s grandfather gave Orange County its

first regional park, a number of the gifts -- several of which were

included in development deals -- dot Newport Beach’s landscape.

In the early 1980s, the company handed over a 60-acre parcel along

Jamboree Road, along the eastern side of the street near San Joaquin

Hills Road. The property, given with no strings attached, is now a

greenbelt of trees.

In the late 1980s, environmentalists suing the Irvine Co. to stop a

planned expansion of Newport Center and Fashion Island secured another

grant of land in the Back Bay.

A group known as Stop Polluting Our Newport sued the city to stop the

expansion, dragging the company into the legal fray.

To secure the group’s blessing to add 70,000 square feet of additional

retail shops and movie theaters, the company agreed to set aside 80 acres

of bluff tops above Back Bay for an interpretive center.

“They initiated those negotiations to get SPON to back off opposition

to [the plan to expand] Fashion Island,” said Jean Watt, a group founder

and former Newport Beach councilwoman.

The land was eventually deeded to Orange County to be added to what

became the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Preserve.

Many of the other parks and greenbelt property were a direct result of

the Circulation Improvement and Open Space Agreement, a 20-year

development deal signed in 1992 between the city and company.

As part of the historic deal, the company agreed to set aside parcels

for parkland at Harbor Cove and The Castaways housing developments,

including what would become Bob Henry Park.

Land was also promised at the corner of East Coast Highway and

Jamboree Road, MacArthur Boulevard and Ford Road and on Avocado Avenue

north of the Central Library.

In exchange, the city granted approval for a 151-unit housing project

known as The Castaways. The property was a long-vacant strip of bluff

near Dover Drive and 16th Street that had once been home to an 18-hole

golf course and popular restaurant.

The restaurant, known as The Castaways Club, burned to the ground

during a 1956 fire.

A 25-acre park was dedicated at the site in 1998 by former Mayor Tom

Edwards. Voters had rejected Measure A, a 1993 initiative that would have

imposed a $10-per-month assessment on all city property owners to raise

the $50 million the Irvine Co. wanted to sell almost 79 acres.

“I’m glad we were able to preserve some open space,” Edwards said. “I

wish the whole thing was open. Everybody says ‘we want the open space.’

When it comes down to paying for it, they didn’t want to do it.”

As part of the open-space agreement, the city also approved a 212-unit

community, which was later named Harbor Cove.

The city and company agreed on eight development projects and four

greenbelt properties.

In the mid-1990s, one of the latter was scratched off the list, when

the city developed an 8.6-acre site near Jamboree and Bristol Street. The

city renegotiated a deal with the company, who had placed restrictions on

its use, so it could bring in Fletcher Jones Motor Cars.

Despite all the land giveaways, the company has not been able to win

over some of its strident critics.

Environmentalists have often accused the company of spinning off

parkland as a way to grease the wheels of government to have a project

approved.

“I think the land they’re giving us is largely the undevelopable land

and they’re getting the best [public relations] out of it,” said Allan

Beek, who joined SPON in the negotiations with the company in the 1980s.

“There may be strings attached.”

Not so, say company officials.

In addition to donating the 11,000 acres to the Nature Conservancy,

the company has also committed to rolling out $30 million over a 10-year

time frame to help pay for the ongoing management of the land.

Ray Watson, one of the first planners hired by the company, said

critics should look at the results of the gifts rather than the motive

behind them.

“Whatever our interest is, if it’s a good thing, it’s a good thing,”

Watson said. “We think it works and we all benefit from it.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .