Oak Creek Village Plan Includes 50-Acre Nature Park

Irvine Company’s plans to turn the Oak Creek Golf Club into a master-planned community are coming into focus.

The Newport Beach-based development firm unveiled plans to add a 50-acre nature park to its proposed redevelopment of the Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine, the Orange County Business Journal reported.

The broader redevelopment plan for the golf course, dubbed Oak Park Village, would cover approximately 216 acres at the northeastern end of the Irvine Spectrum District.

The area has been approved for 5,000 homes, and Irvine Company originally planned to build 3,100 residential units in a mix of apartments and single-family homes, an elementary school and parks as well as make improvements to transportation and infrastructure in the area.

With the new planned nature park, the number of residential units is expected to decrease as the green space would abut the Southern California Edison easement along Jeffrey Road between Walnut Avenue and Irvine Center Drive. Any possible changes to housing plans have not been revealed.

Irvine Company officials are seeking the city’s approval for the park by this summer, with work expected to begin early next year. City politicians view the proposed Oak Park Village as beneficial in helping the municipality in meeting its state-mandated housing goals, which include planning for 23,610 new units by 2029.

On Jan. 15, the Committee to Protect All Irvine Open Space filed paperwork for a citizen initiative to reaffirm Initiative 88-1, a measure approved by voters in 1988 that requires citywide voter approval before residential development can occur on land designated as permanent open space.

Rolf Parkes, the vice chair of the committee which also includes two former Irvine mayors, said that part of the 216-acre Oak Park Village project consists of areas that the city has long deemed “open space.” Parkes is in favor of the nature park but is opposed to building homes and apartments that would bring increased traffic and congestion to the area, he told the Business Journal.

The committee hopes to collect signatures from more than 19,000 registered voters in Irvine to put the issue before voters on the November ballot. Irvine Company cannot develop other open space areas outside the Oak Creek Golf Club because the firm transferred ownership of the land to the city, a spokesperson told the Business Journal.

— Chris Malone Méndez