• June 9, 2023
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District elections

Opinion: District Elections and Council Expansion Back on the Agenda. Will The Council Let the Voters Decide?

A motion to expand the size of the City Council and adopt District Elections will be voted on at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. If the motion passes, Irvine voters will see these issues on the November ballot. While a majority of the Councilmembers stated support for expanding the size of the City Council in 2020, […]

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Bee

Beekeeping and the City of Irvine Ordinance

It all started about 16 years ago when I began to ask why my garden vegetables and fruit trees were failing to produce anything eatable.  After trying fertilizers, soil amendments and talking to my plants, I noticed, or didn’t notice, any bees.  While standing on the corner asking a neighbor if they noticed any bees, […]

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[SERIES] Great Park History: Farmland to 10,556 Homes

Want to know the history of the Great Park? This seven-part series on FivePoint’s Great Park home building entitlements will walk through the history of the area and how FivePoint achieved 10,556 home-building entitlements in the Great Park. 1. Looking Back to Look Forward 10,556 homes. Let’s look back to understand the history of the […]

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FivePoint’s Great Park Home-Building Entitlements: The Doubling of FivePoint’s Great Park Homebuilding Number

In the previous post in this series on Great Park development and entitlement numbers, I wrote about a 2011 Irvine city council vote that change the direction of  development at the Great Park. In this article, we will see how FivePoint’s homebuilding entitlement numbers for the Great Park approximately doubled. The November 2012 election brought […]

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Opinion: If You’re Not Insisting On Democracy, You Might Not Have One — How Minority Rule All Too Often Presides Over The Irvine City Council

There’s a saying that poses a warning to consumers of media: “if you’re not paying for the product, you’re not the customer; you are the product.” It’s a useful reminder to be wary of your relationship to the powers-that-be in that particular market. If there is a rough political equivalent to it, perhaps it is […]

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Great park

FivePoint’s Great Park Home-Building Entitlements: Initial Homebuilding Numbers Plus a Bonus Density

Photo: The Original Plan for the Great Park, 2005-2006 “Entitlements are legal rights conveyed by approvals from governmental entities to develop a property… . Entitlements can be a major factor in the ultimate use, viability, and value of your property.“—Urban Land Institute In the previous article in this series, I wrote about the defeat of […]

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Great park

Why Rename The Great Park? Is it Worth the Time and Tax Dollars?

At the Tuesday, July 27 Great Park Board meeting, the Board will provide direction to city staff on the Orange County Great Park renaming efforts initiated by Mayor Farrah Khan and Councilmember Mike Carroll. At the July 13, 2021 Council meeting, Carroll stated he wanted to “clarify the name of our municipal park as the Irvine […]

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Victory for Free Speech – Judge Rules Public Officials Can’t Censor Online Critics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 12, 2020 Contact: Robin McCall, Public Relations Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, PC Main Office – Los Angeles 10940 Wilshire Blvd., 17th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90024 Phone: (310) 207-3233 Email: [email protected] Website: www.baumhedlund.com Victory for Free Speech – Judge Rules Public Officials Can’t Censor Online Critics Nov. 12, 2020 – Irvine, California – – A […]

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What Happened in Irvine’s 2020 Election

Historic win for mayor-elect Farrah Khan; Biden paints the city almost entirely blue A week after election day, Irvine ballots are still being counted, but according to a map published by the Los Angeles Times, the majority of voters in every Irvine precinct except one voted for Joe Biden. The only Irvine precinct where Donald Trump […]

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Christina Shea and Mike Carroll Lead in Developer-Funded PAC Contributions

Independent Expenditures from September 21 – October 31, 2020 The charts below show the total amount of independent expenditure contributions supporting or opposing individual candidates from September 21 through October 31, 2020. Irvine Watchdog will provide ongoing updates on campaign contributions in the 2020 election. For more, see IrvineWatchdog.org/election-2020/ An independent expenditure (IE) is an […]

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