Rival to S.F. or Paris : Irvine Plans to Transform Its Downtown

Jolted by projections of a massive traffic crunch, Irvine officials Tuesday laid out ambitious plans for a concentrated business/residential district that officials hope will cut down on commuter congestion and give Orange County a true downtown, one that would rival San Francisco’s Market Street or Paris’ Champs Elysee.

Still in its infancy, the broad proposal for the radical redesign of the existing 2,500-acre Irvine Business Complex--now made up largely of imposing office buildings with few residences and scant pedestrians--includes these key features:

* Private development of up to 30,000 residential units within walking distance of the city’s growing business sector.

* An inner-city monorail and another, as yet unspecified regional transportation system for commuters.

* The “transformation” of Von Karman Avenue north of the San Diego Freeway into a “Great Street,” replete with ground-level shops, restaurants and cultural activities.

* The creation of downtown city parks.

* Improved access to John Wayne Airport.

The plan, built on the assumption that some people will want to live where they work, is aimed at cutting commuter traffic by as much as 43% to ward off what Mayor Larry Agran said could be “an unmitigated disaster” in traffic congestion in the growing district by the early 21st Century.

Possible Resistance Conceded

City officials, who will now seek public comment on a far-ranging plan that was a year in the making, concede that they may get criticism from Irvine homeowners who fear a spillover into their neighborhoods from those heading to restaurants, theaters and other cultural activities in the heart of the proposed district.

Then, too, they may face some resistance from developers who have a financial stake in Irvine’s rapidly burgeoning economy and may resent interference from the city.

But while city officials and private planners spoke in gushing terms about their vision for the city at a press conference, others in the development and business community reacted cautiously.

“It sounds very attractive, but we’ll have to wait and see what it’s all about,” said Pat Klone, chairman of the board of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

“But Irvine is certainly ready for expansion and is a very desirable place to live by anyone’s standards,” she said. Noting the planned attempt to get employees to live in the area, she said, “The whole idea that ‘you’d be home by now if you lived here’ is an attractive one to a commuter.”

Larry Thomas, vice president for communications at the Irvine Co., said the plan “really represents a dramatic departure from what exists today in (the Irvine Business Complex) and what was originally planned for it.”

“I’m sure there are some things we’ll like about (the plan) and others we won’t, but it’s really premature to talk about it. Our people will have to take a close look at the plan and see what it means,” Thomas said.

The unveiling Tuesday of the conceptual plan for the district, giving few specifics, was essentially a trial balloon floated by city officials to gauge public reaction.

They hope to gather reaction from the public at a series of hearings and meetings this fall. And in February, the city’s Planning Commission is due to begin the review and approval process. Even under the most optimistic projections, completion of the city’s vision of the new downtown is at least three decades away.

In the meantime, many details remain undetermined. City officials said they believe the city could legally take back some of the entitlements it approved in the early 1980s for business use. But they said they do not intend to go that route, but instead rely on free market pressures to shape the development of the area in keeping with the plan.

Financing for the project also remains largely unexplored. City officials said they expect the myriad of residential, commercial and transportation projects envisioned to come from private rather than public resources. But they are banking on getting $125 million in state money through a November bond initiative to finance the plan’s unspecified transportation system.