Irvine City Website Update Comes With Growth and Glitches
The City of Irvine recently launched its redesigned website and updated digital platform, introducing a cleaner layout, more streamlined formatting, and several new features aimed at improving access to City services and information.
The updated Access Irvine app now includes expanded links to City social media and service platforms, and now residents can submit bicycling concerns directly through the app. The overall design refresh also appears to create a more visual consistency across City webpages and may ultimately improve navigation and accessibility for many users.
Meanwhile, more than a week after launch, some residents are continuing to encounter glitches and growing pains tied to the migration from the City’s previous website structure. One of the more noticeable issues involves older or previously established links connected to the former website. In many cases, older Google search results, bookmarked pages, and archived links currently redirect users back to the City homepage instead of the intended destination. For example, for more than a week, a Google search result for the City’s Office of Emergency Management redirected users back to the homepage rather than directly to emergency preparedness information that residents may actually need during an emergency or disaster situation. While this specific issue has been resolved, residents continue to report that certain council, commission, and advisory body agendas feel harder to locate under the City’s updated navigation system. When searching directly on the city website for some of these items, it produces many options but a direct link to some committees and commissions do not populate as any of the tops results.
Newer webpages created after the launch appear to function correctly under the updated structure. For example, searching for information related to the City’s Pride and Harvey Milk Day event correctly directed users to the intended page on the redesigned website. That suggests some of the ongoing issues may specifically involve older legacy links and archived pathways tied to the previous system.
Issues also appear to extend into portions of the Access Irvine app. While reviewing the app, I noticed that many links connected to calendar events currently do not launch functioning webpages. Some additional embedded links inside the app also appear to have been impacted by the migration.
To be fair, website migrations of this size are complicated and often involve ongoing troubleshooting after launch. The City has spent the last several years gradually updating portions of its digital infrastructure while working with contracted vendors on modernization efforts.
So much public information now depends on digital access: issues involving agendas, archived documents, emergency management resources, and event information. Difficulty accessing these resources can directly affect transparency and public participation.
As the City continues working through these issues, more proactive communication regarding known errors, anticipated fixes, and estimated timelines may help reduce confusion for residents relying on the city website and Access Irvine app for public information and City services.
On 05/20/26, I reached out to the city’s Public Information Office requesting information regarding ongoing remediation efforts, projected timelines for fixing broken legacy links, and additional details, but have not heard back.
2 Comments
Alan Meyerson
May 31, 2026 at 3:05 pmThis is all pretty standard for a system upgrade at any company. There are always problems to fix. The nature of the beast.
Joshua Moore
June 2, 2026 at 8:58 amI would say that the observation that problems are standard with an upgrade is different than the assertion that the scale of the problems we’re seeing with this upgrade are standard.
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