February 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 53

back with lengthy rebuttals and a
website detailing their version of
events. They also convinced a committee in the State Assembly in late
summer to order the California State
Auditor to audit the Great Park audit. Results of the state investigation
are not expected until well into 2016.
Irvine Assistant City Manager Eric
Tolles now leads the Great Park project. According to city estimates, there
is about $327 million available (not
counting the money Five Point Communities is now spending on development of the park) for construction,
operation and management during
the next 10 years.
Great Park Now
Today's visitors to the Great Park site
will find much activity underway -
two massive runways are being demolished; the 4 million square feet removed thus far yielding 145,000 tons
of concrete and asphalt that will be
recycled into roadbeds and parking
lots, clearing 688 acres of land that
will become, by mid-2017, a modified and slimmed-down version of
the original Great Park design.
Great Park's centerpiece will be a
176-acre sports complex with 18 to
21 soccer fields, 12 softball and baseball diamonds, 24 tennis courts, 11
sand volleyball courts and two large
open play areas. The sports park will
be adjacent to Great Park's signature
feature, the aforementioned giant
orange helium balloon. Four large
parking lots at the corners of the
sports park will ensure easy access.
Great Park's other major recreational element is a 185-acre golf
course and clubhouse. Like a cat with
nine lives, the golf course has been
in, out and now back in park plans
during the decade Irvine city leaders have overseen its planning. The
course replaces much of what was
a key element in the original Great

Park design, created in 2007 by Ken
Smith, a New York landscape architect. Smith proposed a man-made
canyon gouged from one end of the
property to the other as a counterpoint to the otherwise flat landscape.
Smith's plan also called for a large
lake and bridge, forested bosque, botanical garden and a section of the
park reserved for museums and other
cultural uses.
The 41-acre bosque remains in
the new plan and has begun to take
shape. It will connect to a 36-acre
trail bisecting the two tracts of homes
directly adjacent to Great Park property (the first 700 homes developed
by Five Point Communities are separated from Great Park's eastern border by a large roadway). An adventure playground for children will be
located in the bosque as well.
A reflection of Orange County's agricultural heritage, 77 acres
of Great Park will be farmed and a
community garden center relocated
to accommodate popular gardening
classes and a farmer's market. Finally, although not contiguous to the
main Great Park parcel, a 178-acre
wildlife corridor will hug the southern boundary of the former base perimeter, linking to other regional corridors. It is scheduled for completion
in 2018-2019.
Five Point Communities received
permission from city of Irvine leaders in November 2013, to spend $215
million of its own funds and assume
management of Great Park construction in return for an increase in development of its property around the
park - 4,600 homes in addition to a
similar number previously approved.
While Five Point concentrates on
the 688 acres that will encompass
most of Great Park, local leaders have
turned their attention to the park's
260-acre Cultural Terrace section,
which the city is responsible for plan-

ning and developing. Smith's original
plan for the area showed a large lake
surrounded by a series of sites where
cultural institutions might locate museums, a library, botanical garden or
similar uses. Two massive buildings
formerly used as aircraft hangars on
the parcel have been identified for reuse, possibly as a military museum.
Past studies also identified the Cultural Terrace as a site for an open-air
amphitheater.
Five Point agreed to fund $2 million in studies to bring Cultural Terrace development options into sharper focus. In late October 2015, the
city and Five Point agreed on a scope
of work for the $2 million, which will
identify four major study areas: infrastructure and engineering, planning
and circulation, architecture and programming, and a financial analysis.
And, in November 2015, the city
and the Anaheim Ducks professional hockey team signed a deal
that will lead to the creation of a
270,000-square-foot ice skating center on 13.5 acres of Great Park property. The city agreed to spend $1.7
million on infrastructure to serve the
site - the Ducks will build and operate four ice rinks, one with a 2,500seat arena. After the facility is open
the city will receive $250,000 or 25
percent of the facility's annual profit
per year (whichever figure is lower).
The Ducks will lease the land for 25
years and the option for 25 more, at
which point the facility reverts to city
ownership.
Time will tell, but at the dawning
of the new year, all signs point to the
likely completion of this behemoth
park and recreation facility, despite
its many fits and starts.
Michael Stockstill is a retired public affairs
executive from Orange County. A former
journalist, he has written extensively about
Great Park (stockstill49@outlook.com).

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