Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine might be getting a nature park as residents, city officials and leaders from the Irvine Company debate the future of the golf course — which could also be the future site of more than 3,000 new homes.
The city — which has been long known for its idyllic park space — has been grappling with open space protections over the past year.
While parks span across nearly 30% of the city’s land, a heated debate is centered on a privately-owned golf course and whether or not the Irvine Company is allowed to turn the course into housing.
[Read: Irvine’s Oak Creek Golf Club Could Become Housing, Does it Go Against a Voter Initiative?]
While the proposal to develop housing is currently on pause, the Irvine Company is pivoting to ask the city to allow them to create a nature park at the golf course site.
That nature park would function as open space adjacent to a potential new residential village with thousands of new residents, homes and vehicles.
While still in conceptual design phases, the nature park could be about 50 acres and include walking paths and bridges connecting to the Jeffrey Open Space Trail and creating a corridor from Limestone Canyon, through the center of the city and to the Quail Hill Open Space Preserve.
Planning commissioners voted unanimously during their meeting last week to recommend that city council members adopt a zone change that would pave the way for a nature park at the golf course.
If approved by council members, the zone change will allow Irvine Company leaders to add a different kind of open space to the golf course site that’s the subject of proposed housing development.
Critics have been arguing that the golf course can’t be replaced with housing because it’s protected open space that was established through a voter-approved ballot initiative in 1988.
While the Irvine Company’s original housing proposal didn’t include any open space at the golf course site, the zoning change would pave the way for a nature park that could end up being next to the city’s new residential village known as Oak Park.
Commissioner Jeff Pierson said open space in the form of a nature park might better serve the general public than open space in the form of a privately-owned golf course.
“The property owner developed that open space as a golf course and as a restaurant for limited membership — people that had to pay,” Pierson said at the meeting. “It was not open to the general public as a public golf course where they could use it for no cost.”
“What we’re doing is allowing the property owner with an alternative to be able to come back to us with a project,” he continued. “There’s no project before us today.”
He also emphasized that this vote was part of a larger approval process before any development occurs.
“Yes, it could be a Trojan Horse. I’m not discounting that at all,” Pierson said. “But as a property owner, owning limited use property, even though it’s open space — they should have a right to come to the city and request us to look at an opportunity for them to move something else forward.”
Jeffrey Davis, senior vice president at the Irvine Company, presented conceptual plans for the nature park and assured commissioners the zone change doesn’t alter the area’s designation as open space.
“The application does not change the underlying land use of the area that’s being held by the golf course,” Davis said. “That’s a fact.”
He also explained that the Irvine Company began researching a nature park proposal after hearing concern from residents last year about losing open space in the center of town.
“We were here about a year ago,” Davis said. “We had the original application for the 3,100 housing units without a nature park. We heard from the community that center-city open space was important. That’s what kicked us off on our outreach program.”
Many residents at the meeting made comments in support of the nature park for Irvine families to enjoy.
Critics said the proposal is an attempt to take attention away from the thousands of houses that might replace the majority of the approximately 200-acre golf course site.
Former Irvine Company executive Michael LeBlanc, who helped draft the voter-approved open space ballot initiative in 1988, urged commissioners to reject the zone change at Thursday’s meeting.
“What’s been glossed over is that when the resolution was passed overwhelmingly, it incorporated an open space dedication program in the general plan that sets forth how open space is to be protected,” he said. “It does not allow for substitutions to get park credit to buy out of your open space land dedication requirements.”
“Everybody knows this is just a precursor for the residential development that the Irvine Company has in mind,” he continued.
Joanne Slobodien, a representative of the Save Irvine Open Space group, said she was very disappointed by the commissioners’ vote in a Monday afternoon text to Voice of OC.
She said the city should have already taken control of the land owned by the Irvine Company through an easement so it can remain open space.
“This zoning changes the nature of Oak Creek by allowing alternative compensation for land that was supposed to remain protected. That impact was not clearly disclosed to the Commission, and the missing easement — which is central to those protections — was not addressed.”
She said it should be left up to the voters to decide the future of the golf course.
Former Irvine Mayors Sally Anne Sheridan and Christina Shea also released a joint statement earlier this month on the Save Irvine Open Space website stating that they are gathering signatures for a citizen’s initiative to prevent development at open spaces in the city.
“We do not believe the city’s open space, meant to be preserved in perpetuity, should be sold to developers today or tomorrow. At a minimum, it is up to the voters to decide if they agree with allowing open space land to be used for development.”
What’s the Future of Oak Creek?
Last year, the city went back and forth about if voters would get a chance to weigh in on the debate through a ballot measure.
[Read: Is Irvine Going to Ask Voters for Approval to Develop a Golf Course into Housing?]
After city council members weighed several options, they eventually kicked any discussion about a ballot measure into 2026. The item has not yet reappeared in front of the city council this year.
[Read: Irvine Open Space Protection Ballot Measure Kicked to 2026]
The debate began last year when the city council and the Irvine Company began discussing initial steps about what could become the city’s final residential village, known as Oak Park.
The Irvine Company’s preliminary proposal included 3,100 housing units, a new school, parks and other community spaces at the Oak Creek Golf Club site.
As part of the proposed project, the Irvine Company would also give the city about 300 acres of permanent open space in the Orchard Hills and Portola Springs villages in return for developing the golf course.
But those early plans hit a roadblock when Irvine residents started ringing alarm bells, alleging the proposal violates the golf course’s preservation as permanent open space, a designation passed by voters in 1988 through an effort known as Initiative Resolution 88-1.
That resolution outlines locations in town deemed “conservation/open space” and includes the golf course as one of these areas.
[Read: Irvine Grapples With Open Space Protections]
City officials were trying to decide whether or not the council had the legal ability to remove that preservation designation without asking the voters through another ballot measure.
But council members eventually decided the best decision is to bring the question back to the voters again in a special election and ask whether or not they wish to remove that designation before any development moves forward.
Irvine is ranked number two in the country for park access, according to the Trust for Public Lands — a nonprofit park advocacy group.
The group found that 28% of the city’s land is dedicated to park space and that 96% of residents live within a 10-minute walk to a park.
During Thursday’s planning commission meeting, city staff said the option to allow a nature park will not impact the ballot measure from 1988 and will not prevent a future ballot measure on the topic.
The city council is expected to vote on the zone change at a future meeting.
“It excites me how engaged our community is,” Irvine Planning Commissioner Seth Grossman said at last week’s meeting. “Wherever this process ends up, we are all residents of Irvine. We are all neighbors in the end.”
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
