Great Park Neighborhoods: Two Hotels and Luxury Fitness Center To Be Decided On

LifeTime Fitness Center
Tonight at 5:30pm the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing in Council Chambers on an application submitted by FivePoint for LifeTime Fitness, a luxury fitness center.
According to the Staff Report, here are the details:
- 3-story building resort-style health club
- 4-story parking structure. Entrance to the parking structure on Irvine Blvd.
- Location: Irvine Blvd, east of Cultivate, north of Episode, and west of Pusan in the Cadence Park neighborhood.
- This area of the Great Park Neighborhoods (GPN) was originally envisioned as a residential suburban neighborhood providing area-wide services and retail.
- In response to changes in the marketplace FivePoint resubmitted plans with different uses in 2015 and 2018. FivePoint determined that a commercial center/food hall plan wasn’t feasible. Now FivePoint wants to put LifeTime Fitness at this location.
- Existing residential units are located to the south and west. The ARDA transfer site to the east.
To hear the full presentation and discussion before the decisive vote, please attend the Planning Commission meeting at City Hall, Council Chamber, 5:30pm. The Planning Commission meetings are not televised.
Hotels & Retail
FivePoint has also submitted a new application to the city for a 428,000 square foot of mixed-use retail with two hotels on the other side of the Great Park Neighborhoods on Great Park Blvd and Ridge Valley. See map below.
- 1 – extended stay hotel with 161 rooms
- 1 – luxury hotel with 180 rooms
This development is primarily intended to serve the OC Great Park and not the 10,556 homes in the Great Park Neighborhoods. The hearing for this mix-used proposal is tentatively scheduled for the Oct. 17th Planning Commission meeting.
More information will become available once the agenda is posted for the October 17 Planning Commission meeting.
2 Comments
Susan Sayre
October 3, 2019 at 3:49 pmA 428,000 foot mixed use retail center with 2 hotels is not a village neighborhood shopping Center! Like the residents of older Irvine Villages, the residents need a small neighborhood commercial center that they can walk or bicycle to in order to enjoy a meal out or to meet family and friends over coffee or a yogurt. They need a grocery store that they can run to that is located just down the street to pick up a loaf of bread or quart of milk. The Irvine City Council and the Planning Commission has actively protected village master plans and village characters of the older villages. They should be ensuring that the new villages follow the village master plan Concept whereby the residents are provided with their own unique infrastructure designed specifically for the neighborhood community which includes a small village commercial center.
philfuchs
October 3, 2019 at 8:10 pmI respectfully disagree with Susan Sayre’s statement regarding what we as residents actually living in a Great Park Neighborhood need as our community shopping center. I understand that living in the old model village design seems good for those living in Woodbridge and Turtle Rock. I further disagree with her statement that the Irvine City Council and the Planning Commission needs to actively protect the village master plans and force the new neighborhoods into the older village character model. I think I finally understand the resistance of those who live in Woodbridge about what they want for all of Irvine. They firmly believe in the statement “Make Irvine Great Again (MIGA). They want to roll back the calendar to the mid 70’s when they first bought their homes in Irvine. When most of the streets were either two lanes or four lanes max. Gas pumps were not allowed to be seen from the roadway at gas stations. The population was half what it is now. When there were only 3 high schools.
However, we now have a Great Park. It has multiple championship stadiums were soon teams from around the state and nation will compete. Those families, fans and competitors will need nearby hotel accommodations and thus reduce pollution by being within walking distance of their venue.
Please don’t assume you know what is best for those of us who live within the Great Park Neighborhoods. My wife and I just tonight returned from an event held at Novel Park. All residents were invited to meet and greet our neighbors with free pizza, caramel apples, churros, crepes and beverages. We do just fine as a village, thank you very much.
Let’s together make a pact. The people living in the GPN won’t force our new neighborhood living model on you who live in the older villages and you who live in the older villages won’t force your old school village model on our new GPN neighborhoods. Deal?
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