IRVINE : Irvine Co. Reports Campaign Spending

The Irvine Co. reported Friday that it has spent $185,625 so far in a campaign to persuade voters to support a proposed housing development. The project needs voter approval in order to proceed.

The company is conducting a campaign in support of Measure B, which will be on the Nov. 5 Irvine ballot. Voters will be asked whether they want to allow the company to build its approved 3,850-home Westpark II project.

The City Council approved the development last December, but a slow- and anti-growth group in the city, Irvine Tomorrow, successfully gathered enough signatures to force the project onto the ballot.

In mandatory campaign spending reports filed Friday with the city and county, the company reported spending the bulk of its campaign funds on political consultants and telephone surveys. The Irvine Co. has conducted three surveys to gauge voter support and reaction to the proposed development.

Mark P. Petracca, an Irvine Tomorrow member who helped collect signatures to qualify the Westpark II referendum for the ballot, called the $185,625 an “obscene amount of money.”

“They’ve already spent 10 times as much as they should have and only 10% of what they probably will spend,” said Petracca, a political science professor at UC Irvine.

So far, he said, Irvine Tomorrow has not raised any money to oppose the Westpark II project on the ballot, but hopes to raise a few thousand dollars to help print flyers. Members of the group will campaign this weekend by handing out flyers on Measure B at neighborhood supermarkets.

As part of the Irvine Co. campaign, the company has printed thousands of green-and-white posters, which it has mailed to city residents. The posters show the size and location of the proposed Westpark II--also called Village 38--and indicate that the development is part of the city’s General Plan, which outlines Irvine’s development.

An Irvine Co. spokesman could not be reached for comment on the campaign late Friday afternoon.