Orange County Great Park
| Orange County Great Park | |
|---|---|
The El Toro airfield in 1993
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| Type | Regional park |
| Location | Irvine, California |
| Coordinates | 33°40′N 117°44′W / 33.67°N 117.73°WCoordinates: 33°40′N 117°44′W / 33.67°N 117.73°W |
| Area | 27.5 acres (11.1 ha) (eventually 1,347 acres (545 ha)) |
| Created | July 14, 2007 |
| Operated by | Orange County Great Park Corporation, city of Irvine |
| Status | Open, under development and delayed |
| Public transit access | Irvine Transportation Center |
| Website | ocgp |
The Orange County Great Park is a public park located in Irvine, California with a focus on sports, agriculture, and the arts. It is a non-aviation reuse of the decommissioned Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) El Toro. The Orange County park will comprise just 28.8% of the total area that once made up the air base. The project was approved by the voters of Orange County in 2002 at $1.1 billion.
Initial proposals after the retirement of the Marine Corps Air Station included an international airport, housing, and the Great Park. In 2001, Orange County voters passed "Measure W," authorizing the former air station's use as a central park/nature preserve and multi-use development. The measure was passed, which led to the designation of the land as the Orange County Great Park.
The original plan for the infrastructure of the Great Park was virtually identical to Newport Center, with five roads connecting into a central loop road separating the park into "blocks". The design was later modified to include a large section of runway and conform more to the layout of the original base, as a reminder of its history. Most prominent in the park plans is the restoration of Agua Chinon Creek, which had been channeled underground ever since the base was built in the 1940s.
A contest was held for the design of the park; the winning design was created by a team of landscape architects lead by Ken Smith.
In the midst of the 2008 US housing crisis, developer Lennar struggled to fulfill its part of the bargain, including delayed construction of planned housing and of a "community facilities district."
Irvine City Council passed a vote in July 2014 for a plan that included removal of the canyon from the Great Park plan. FivePoint Communities was also given approval for 4,606 more homes near the park in exchange for $200 million to develop 688 acres (278 ha) of the park which will include golf courses, a sports park, and nature trails.
The closing of MCAS El Toro ignited a political firestorm over the eventual fate of the facility. With its existing infrastructure, some favored converting the base into an international airport. Those favoring the new airport tended to come from northern Orange County, desiring the convenience of a closer airport; and from areas in Newport Beach that are within the arrival and departure noise zones surrounding John Wayne Airport, hoping to close that airport in favor of the new one at El Toro. Those against the airport proposal were largely residents of the cities in the immediate vicinity of El Toro, such as Irvine, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Dana Point, and Mission Viejo, where residents were alarmed at the idea of the aircraft noise. The cities opposed to the airport created a joint powers authority, the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA) to oppose the project. They were joined in the effort by grass-roots organizations that collected record numbers of signatures on petitions to place anti-airport initiatives on the ballot and raised funds for the election campaigns. The volunteer-run El Toro Info Site was the Internet voice of the movement and one of the first political blogs.
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Wikipedia