Council Winner Expects to Put Brakes on Irvine Growth

Having said his last good nights and thank-yous to a house full of supporters at 2 a.m. Wednesday, City Councilman Larry Agran, heady from victory, could hardly wait to start plotting strategy to slow the pace of Irvine’s development.

“We are going to get down to business right away,” said Agran, who by engineering a resounding third term for himself and a first term for City Planning Commissioner Edward Dornan, has formed a slower-growth majority on the five-member City Council.

The 41-year-old attorney and top vote-getter among 10 candidates in Tuesday’s election said he had already talked with Councilman-elect Dornan and Councilman Ray Catalano about ending Irvine’s participation in a multi-city agreement to build three controversial freeways. Agran added that he and his allies would consider permanently designating thousands of acres for open space that the Irvine Co. has earmarked for development.

“Irvine’s participation in the (freeway) Joint Powers Authority will be reversed, and we will deliver very early on our pledge to . . . provide more open space,” Agran said, adding that he will bring up those issues at the first meeting of the newly constituted council on July 8.

“I have no problem with our participation in cooperative transportation arrangements with the region,” Agran added. “But they ought to be genuine proposals, not phony developer concocted schemes that only serve their profit motive.”

Agran and Dornan have pounded away on the themes of stopping “imprudent” development by the Irvine Co. in the 42-square-mile master-planned city, a strategy that proved successful in distinguishing themselves from pro-business candidates, Tom Jones and Hal Maloney, who drew support from Irvine Co. officials.

“We found there was a growing fear among residents of losing the measured kind of planning they’ve had in Irvine,” said Agran, of the city dubbed the fastest-growing in the state. “We tried to give them the feeling that they still have control over their community and that Irvine would not become one more smoggy suburb on the road between San Diego and Los Angeles.”

The Irvine Co., the city’s creator and dominant landholder with 68,000 acres in the city, was the apparent loser Tuesday, but the company president expressed a willingness to work with the new slow-growth coalition.

“We read the election outcome in Irvine as an expression of public support for controlled growth . . . ,” said Irvine Co. President Thomas H. Nielsen in a prepared statement. “Mr. Agran and Mr. Dornan campaigned hard and eloquently for the significant responsibilities the voters have entrusted to them.”

Saying that no other city does a better and more balanced job when it comes to community planning and that citizens’ interest in the planning process should be encouraged, Nielsen added, “There should be more community dialogue on questions of open space, transportation and the provision of schools and a strong economic base for the city. We look forward to working with the victors in the council race, their council colleagues and the citizens of Irvine in furthering public understanding of those issues.”

However, with Agran, Dornan and Catalano in agreement on key development issues, the company’s plans may be put on hold or ultimately scaled down. Moreover, much of its ambitious development in Irvine and adjacent cities depends in large part on the billion-dollar construction of the San Joaquin Hills, Foothill and Eastern Freeways.

“They (Irvine Co. executives) put themselves so badly out of touch with the entire community that this (election) result is very understandable,” Agran said, referring to his and Dornan’s 2-1 margin over Jones and Maloney. “I think at this point the residents are actually fed up with (their involvement).”

The Irvine Co. purports to have a hands-off policy when it comes to local elections, but in fact, several company employees of the giant development firm conducted a large-scale effort to promote the candidacies of Jones and Maloney who were more in tune with Irvine Co. plans.

Jones, who spent the morning after the election walking on the beach, said: “I think the election came down to a philosophical decision. For now, the people who did turn out seem to want change.”

Asked whether he thought the Irvine Co.’s behind-the-scenes support and fund-raising effort--which helped net about $100,000--harmed his and Maloney’s chances, Jones said it was hard to know.

“People were voting more for and against traffic and density,” said Jones, an attorney and president of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce. “I think they were looking in their front yards and at everything around them and expressing concern. . . . I got generically categorized as much more pro-growth and (freeway) corridors than I really was. Larry and Ed did a very good job of dividing the philosophy that way. I don’t think I was able to overcome that.”

Irvine Mayor Dave Baker, who along with City Councilwoman Sally Anne Miller endorsed Jones and Maloney and now finds himself in the “pro-growth” minority, quipped that the weight of a council member’s vote should now be determined by the pound.

The six-foot-plus, 325-pound mayor and former basketball star, said, “I figure I outweigh the two guys that got elected.”

On a serious note, Baker added that the pendulum of “pro-growth or slow-growth” city councils tend to swing back and forth over the years.

“Larry and Ed ran a savvy campaign, and I think it played successfully on perceptions people feel right now about traffic and growth,” he said.