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Irvine World News
Council OKs EIR for 'woodsy' path along Jeffrey
Laylan Connelly
The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to certify the supplemental Environmental Impact Report for the Jeffrey Open Space Spine Community Consensus plan after city staff presented the "woodsy" make up of the path and the cost to implement the program.
The spine is a belt of open space that will stretch 96 acres, or three miles, on the East side of Jeffrey Road between the Santa Ana (5) freeway and the open space in the Lomas de Santiago Ridge. The path will have varying widths up to 400-feet wide.
The first segment to begin construction, between Trabuco Road and Irvine Boulevard, will be during the fiscal year of 2005-06. The remaining segments are projected to be built out throughout the next 10 to 15 years.
Council member Christina Shea said she couldn't wait to run the path.
"It is just beautiful, I'm really excited about this trail opening up," she said.
Three workshops were held through the spring and summer of 2001, when residents met with city planners and representatives from the Irvine. Co to decide what the community wanted the spine to look like.
The landscape will be "woodsy" with rolling terrain that will be heavily planted with trees, natural grasses and ground cover.
Parking was also addressed, and people using the path would be pedestrians walking from their homes or bicyclists riding from one destination to another, so the need for parking is low. Therefore, those wishing to use the open space would use one of the public parking lots located at several facilities adjacent to the spine, including a middle school and nearby community park, according to the park plan.
For safety reasons, pedestrians on the path would also be watched by six security cameras and would have access to six call boxes along the path. There would be payphones at two restrooms. The Jeffrey Open Space Spine will have "view windows," allowing for visibility from the public roadways into areas such as restrooms and gathering areas.
The windmill at the corner of Trabuco and Jeffrey roads will be relocated and there will be a historical marker dedicated to the Depression-era Valencia Growers Packing House. There will be other historical markers along the path to identify key times in Irvine's history.
On April 3, the planning commission approved 4-0 to recommend to council the preservation of the orange packinghouse and parking to accommodate it. The planning commission hoped that the packinghouse might be used for such facilities as offices, a community center or a museum.
During the community workshops, the participants showed no attachment to the packinghouse and almost all backed a plan to get rid of the two-story building.
In negotiating the build out of the project, the city traded 21 acres with the Irvine Co. in exchange for the development bill, which is expected to be about $1.1 million an acre. The original plan was 117 acres total and was reduced to 96 acres.
The city will not pay anything until each segment is completed, at which time they would be responsible for maintenance cost, the total expected to be about $950,000 annually after completed build out.
The financials were discussed at the meeting, and even though council member Mike Ward voted for the plan, he said he had concerns about the cost to maintain the spine.
As each segment is built it would need to be accepted by the city. About 41 percent of the maintenance cost would be funded from the lighting, landscape and park maintenance district. The remaining 59 percent will be funded from other sources from the general fund.
The staff report recommended the path have five grade separations-- 3 underpasses and 2 overpasses-- which will cost a total of about $7 million to be paid for by the Irvine Co.
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