Great Park Measure R

By Margie Wakeham

The defeat of an international airport at El Toro was a huge success but it is not enough. We must be more prudent on developing the park and spending the limited resource we have.

As a 37 year resident of Irvine I always opposed an international airport in Irvine. Defeating the County efforts to build this in the middle of the OC heartland would have been a disaster both to our quality of life, air quality and home values.

However the 3 years of planning and the enormous expenditure of funds is problematic. We have heard many promises and received multiple mailers promoting a park, but all we have to show is a temporary park and a balloon overlooking still intact runways and a recycling yard.

I see three issues: Governance of the Corporation; lack of sufficient fiscal oversight; and finally a potential developer agreement that could jeopardize and overcrowd our award winning schools.

6 politicians serving on the Board of the Great Park Corporation are not the best equipped to plan a park. We need to bring in the experts. Hoag Hospital has built an outstanding medical center overseen by a board of doctors and persons experienced in medical care. We need to do the same, developers, land planners and those with expertise to both plan and build a great 211h century metropolitan park. The City can retain over-site and not loose control by empowering a board of directors to develop the park with the interest of the residents still in mind.

The Planning Center has been given carte blanc with no apparent limitation on their vision. Great to vision but the resources to build are not infinite. As funds are available over the next decades and the community changes so will the plan change, as has Irvine. We need to plan and build as the funds are available. Indeed the organization hired to monitor the planning has indicated more than $375,000,000 in overruns already! We must be realistic about our capabilities to develop the Park.

The current agreement with Great Park Neighborhoods sets aside 13 acres for a school site, the size for an elementary school. Our schools are packed! The 13 acre site is all that was allowed for about 3000 homes. If the new developer agreement is passed for 9000 homes with NO provision for additional funds or school sites, where will these children go to school? They will over crowd our current schools. Redevelopment funds may someday be available, but not in a timely way and there is no room for additional funding in the CFD (Community Facilities District.)

With these issues in mind, I do not support Measure R. I support the city of Irvine's control of the land and the development of the park. But we are not being prudent with the resources available.