Former Irvine Mayor Criticizes Successor, Irvine Co. Project
The Irvine Company and Mayor Larry Agran have a new critic of a big development proposed near the former El Toro base,Agran’s predecessor as mayor, Christina Shea.
Shea, who stepped down as mayor last year after a two-term limit, blasted the Irvine Co.’s plans for what’s called the Northern Sphere. The proposed commercial space and homes stand to create as much traffic as an El Toro airport, she said.
In a letter sent to the Business Journal, Shea dismissed Agran’s slow-growth reputation and criticized Irvine Co. efforts on behalf of Agran and council ally Christopher Mears in the November election.
“Larry Agran has voted for many large development projects in his career as an elected official and is presently looking at a proposal by The Irvine Company to develop our Northern Sphere,a project I do not support,” Shea said.
Agran declined to comment on Shea’s letter and called the Irvine Co. issue “hardly noteworthy.”
Conservative Shea often bumped heads with the liberal Agran. She also had an up-and-down relationship with the Irvine Co., which she said supported her opponent the first time she ran for mayor but backed her re-election.
Shea, who also opposes an El Toro airport, now works as a self-employed government affairs consultant. She said her letter is part of a bid to rally opposition to the Northern Sphere project.
The Irvine Co.’s plans call for a 10.2 million-square-foot extension of the Irvine Spectrum as well as another 7 million square feet of commercial space and 12,350 homes. Both projects lie just outside Irvine’s boundaries. The city hopes to annex the land.
Unlike other projects, the Irvine Co. has worked with the city to come up with plans for the Northern Sphere since the mid-1980s, a spokesman said. In 2000, the council, including Shea, unanimously voted for a general blueprint for the area.
Shea also sent along a copy of an Aug. 22 letter signed by Irvine Co. executive vice presidents Joe Davis and Dan Young seeking support for an Agran and Mears fundraising event.
“Individuals of The Irvine Company historically have given to candidates, but I have never seen Irvine Company vice presidents send out official letters to a large universe of business interests to support sitting elected officials,” she wrote.
An Irvine Co. spokesman said Davis and Young were asked to pass out invitations for the event and did so on their own.
,Michael Lyster, Rick Reiff
