The Irvine City Council was given a status report on the new framework and design ideas for the Great Park on Tuesday, January 10. The Framework’s most current conceptual designs, which featured the ARDA site, a portion of the Cultural Terrace West, and ideas for potential food and beverage alternatives, were also given to the Council for decision-making.
A 14,000-seat, $130 million amphitheatre, a USA Water Polo aquatics centre, and a 70-acre Farm Hub, which will be used for farm-to-table dining options, are all additional key components of the park.
The ARDA site will be demolished in the next few months so that it can be transformed into a sizable botanical garden with a veterans’ park and memorial.
Great Park Director Pete Carmichael said that he hopes to give a rough estimate of how much the first phase of the Framework will cost in February.
He stated, “We intend to return on February 24 with preliminary financial and leasing terms.”
According to a staff report, Irvine has spent nearly $1.2 million developing elements of landscape architecture, engineering, and infrastructure planning since the Council approved the revised Framework Plan for the Great Park with a 4-1 vote in July.
Carmichael noted that municipal staff has been coordinating utilities and land use for the upcoming construction in the Great Park with a number of organisations, including the Navy, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Southern California Edison.
To ensure the park’s future has wet and dry utilities, the staff is working with an alphabet soup of regulatory bodies and interested parties, most notably utilities Irvine Ranch Water District and Edison. “Some of the hardest work is the work that’s less visible,” Carmichael said.
Although no official cost has been established, Carmichael stated that Irvine has an estimated $625 million in excess cash on hand and that he anticipates the project to be finished in five to seven years. Carmichael also hoped that the Council would be able to give staff guidance as the initiative developed.
“We estimate that we will have approximately $625 million available over the next five years, and we will return to the board in 60 days with a strategy that we believe connects our available sources and available uses of money with city resources to get that done in the next five to seven years,” he added.
During the first phase of building on the ARDA site, Irvine will focus on the botanical gardens and veterans memorial that will be built there. Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan said she has heard from the community that there is concern that money would be spent on bigger projects even if the project is still in the conceptual design stage. Khan stated that she intended to reassure the neighbourhood that the city gave the park’s aesthetic aspects—such as its water features, lakes, huge grasslands, and forests—priority. She continued, “I keep hearing from our Great Park individuals that they want the park features, and they are concerned that money and time are spent someplace else and not on the park features. When it comes to the timetable and finances of the Cultural Terrace West, in contrast to the Flying Leatherneck Museum, Carmichael said he does not see the proposed Cultural Terrace initiatives as “supplanting.” However, he said the city is focused on presenting a plan based on feedback from the community. He added that the city wants to deliver a financial phasing plan that would govern the pace at which projects get greenlit. “One of the things we’re most focused on is a phasing plan that really delivers on the fundamental park characteristics that the locals described,” he said, referring to the sports park and other non-programmable passive spaces like the Heart of The Park area. “We believe we can present a strategy in late February that accomplishes many things, but there are also sufficient resources to accomplish our objectives.”
The 125-acre ARDA site will be the starting point for the 300-acre Great Park Framework Phase 1 concept.
