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The Irvine Company is proposing more housing in the city.
This month, the Irvine City Planning Commission approved a zoning change requested by the Newport Beach developer that would allow for as many as 2,500 new housing units to be built near the University of California, Irvine. Irvine previously zoned the area for office use, but the property’s location near “major employment centers, retail shopping centers, and the University of California, Irvine supports the need for residential uses,” according to city staff.
The project includes some affordable housing—and comes as the Irvine Co. recently announced plans this month to convert the privately operated Oak Creek Golf Course and two adjacent commercial parcels into a 235-acre residential neighborhood with 3,100 housing units.
UCI Area Housing Planned in Phases
The UCI-area housing project would be bound by University Drive to the north, the San Joaquin Transportation Corridor (Highway 73) to the west and California Avenue to the east. Bison Avenue would be one block away from the project’s southern border.
The zoning update would allow for a maximum of 2,500 new housing units. Phase one of development would bring 1,233 units online. A future phase would see as many as 1,267 units added to University Research Park.
A master plan of the project shows the initial 1,233 units would be built across two six-floor buildings, a seven-level structure and centralized recreational area. Most of the units—853—would be one-bedroom apartments, while about 377 units would be two-bedroom apartments.
The remaining three units would be studio apartments.
Plans also show 206 units would be designated as affordable housing. Those units would be built in the first phase. Another 210 affordable units could be built during the second phase.
All units would be built on land that is currently vacant.
The re-zoned land is part of the Irvine Company’s University Research Park and was previously designated as an area for medical and scientific research development or industrial real estate. No residential development was allowed within the planning area, prior to the zoning change.
More than 900,000 square feet of office or research and development space currently exists at University Research Park, according to city staff.
Irvine’s Housing Plan
Irvine Co. has been busy making plans within the master-planned city.
Its other housing proposal at Oak Creek Golf Course calls for the creation of a new village, to be located at the end of the Irvine Spectrum District. It would bring single-family houses next to Innovation Office Park, where companies like Sega of America and Twitch lease space—about one mile from the Great Park.
As many as 1,500 for-sale houses would be built on the golf course, while 1,600 apartment units are slated for Innovation Office Park, which is adjacent to Oak Creek.
Irvine is already home to 117,000 housing units, and the proposed developments at University Research Park and Spectrum District would help the Central Orange County city meet its state-mandated goal of building around 58,000 new houses and apartments by the year 2045.
All California cities are required to add new housing units within their borders. Irvine General Plan Update requires the additional new housing units to accommodate the city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment, per city documents.