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  Andra

  June 27, 2018 at 7:42 am

  Great job giving voice to local community concerns!

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  Wesley Oliphant

  June 27, 2018 at 8:13 am

  Thank you for writing this article. It really helps to personalize the costs of the current, unrestrained development that is taking place.

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  anon

  June 28, 2018 at 10:02 am

  Steelhead Brewery. When it was around University Center had a nice quiet feel about it, but now it is overcrowded 24-7. The reason: besides the overwhelming greed of The Irvine Company, there is also continuous mass development at UC Irvine. Thousands of new dorm rooms have been added over the years, with more under construction now. This has caused a population explosion in that part of Irvine, massively increased traffic requiring the widening of Culver and so on. Everyone screams at the city counsel to stop development, but what is usually overlooked is the same mass development by UCI, who cares even less about local residents than TIC does.

  So after a decade in Irvine I have decided to move because of the constant development, overcrowding and increased noise levels. When I moved here Irvine had a village feel, but now it is becoming Los Angeles.

  To everyone who remains: good luck, but the cards are stacked against you by both commercial developers and government agencies. Both get more money from more population and increased college headcount, not by preserving the neighborhood.

  This “increase the population vs. preserve the neighborhood” is also true at the national level and reflected in our ever hardening immigration debate. Population growth requires development. Massive population growth requires massive development.

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  Sharon Toji

  June 28, 2018 at 8:15 pm

  I feel very torn about this topic of neighborhood preservation and urban development. First, a little background. I am one of the original residents of Irvine’s very first Village, University Park. I helped organize our 50th anniversary in 2016. Full disclosure: The Irvine Company and the City both were helpful to our grassroots planning group, including funds. To “anon”: I have to remind him or her that Irvine was founded around UCI. Without UCI, Irvine might have remained in agriculture much longer, and certainly would not have been carefully planned as it was. We, and almost everyone who moved in during those early years, was connected to the university, or came here because they wanted to live in a university town.

  One of the highlights of our “Irvine 50 Homecoming” celebration was an exhibit of all kinds of documentation about the early planning of Irvine, and a panel of the prestigious architects and planners who were hired by the Irvine Company (back then still owned by the family, and not by Donald Bren) to plan beautiful communities with shared greenbelts, and provided with amenities like parks, playgrounds, pools and community meeting rooms. The “Village” concept was very unique and my first husband Guy Sircello and others, all UCI professors, planned and put on a symposium on planned communities attended by planners from around the U.S. Indeed, I do support what I call “legacy zoning” so that our very first communities could be preserved as walking villages, and developers would not be allowed, as is already happening, to come in and demolish the architecture-designed mid-century modern homes, and build huge three story mansions in their places. Actually, as they are now, those early Villages cannot support much larger homes with five to seven bedrooms because our streets, parking spaces and recreational facilities cannot support that type of population.

  However, Irvine is, mostly because of UCI, a thriving center of research centered business, and the employees of those companies, as well as the teachers, police and service workers who support the population need homes and apartments. So, I am not against all development. Irvine cannot wall itself off. However, what we are practicing, in my opinion, is not smart urban development. We are not providing the kind of mass transit we need. There should be a well planned shuttle system, for instance. It would be better to build apartment buildings with more stories, but mandate green space between and around them, so that pocket parks, playgrounds, neighborhood coffee shops, etc. would encourage the formation of communities and would relieve the appearance of monolithic structures built right up to the sidewalk, block after block.

  As far as dorms are concerned, I’m glad UCI is building dorms. We need them, because without them, our homes are being turned into dorms by greedy owners who offer to buy homes in University Park, and then cram as many students into them as possible. It would be far better to have the students enjoying dorm life, and keep our homes available to rent to families who can enjoy our greenbelts and recreational facilities.

  One thing that I very much agree with is that the Irvine Company should rethink its policy of replacing every unique business with a franchise. Irvine is fast living up to its reputation as “beige city.” Every business is duplicated in every other faceless city in America. When I travel, I always seek out unique businesses, and I can point to cities like Walnut Creek and Santa Cruz that have populations very similar to Irvine’s but it is a delight to walk through the city center and find restaurants and shops of all kinds. I won’t go to Starbucks, just because I am so angry that our unique coffee shop in Village One was replaced, and now I find that the same thing has happened to Cielo’s. Surely Donald Bren does not need more money but charging so much rent that unique local businesses are forced to move seems to be all that matters to his company. TIC today is nothing like the Company I knew when I first moved here.

  We need to come to grips with the fact that we need people here to provide services and keep our economy humming, and they have to live someplace. The University is the basis for our existence, so we need to accommodate that as well. But if life here is going to be supportable, and also, if we are going to have any unique character, we need to do much more pre-planning, use much more intelligence and creativity in our zoning, and certainly rethink how people can get around the city to shop and especially to work and go to school. That ought to happen before more building takes place. Let’s become smarter about how we grow.

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  judithG

  June 29, 2018 at 7:56 am

  Thanks Sharon! Thank you too for all your work on the 50th Anniversary Celebration for UP! I heard about the wonderful event but was not able to attend.

  I hear what you are saying re: UCI. The number of students will (if not already) out number the non-student population and the surrounds must change to accommodate. We have seen that happen with University Town Center. Once a place for families with Whale of A Tale, Focus Dance Center, the music school, even 24-hour fitness, the focus in now on the students. Which makes sense given its proximity to the school. I miss going there with my family but don’t visit much since Target went in and parking is so crazy.

  Campus Plaza has seen lots of turn over too, mostly for the better. Again catering to the plethora of student housing surrounding the center. With Stricklands leaving, my guess is our family probably won’t go there as much.

  Parkview Center is another story. With the exception of Parkview Apts, it is surrounded by single family homes. There are plans to change the format to cater toward the commuters, not the community. Adding a drive through restaurant, removal of parking, tearing down the service station and replacing it with a 24-hour Am/PM, closing off one driveway off University – redirecting center traffic onto Michelson. Irvine Company historically has not listened to UP/Parkview/Concordia/TR families who use this center. That’s clear with the grocery store turnover and iHop closure. Now Cielo. 🙁

  Lots of changes. I’m for progress, but I’m also for listening to customer. Unfortueately, developers don’t consider residents customers because we already own our homes and shop in their centers.

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