Irvine Company is looking to turn the former Traveland USA site on the edge of the Irvine Spectrum area into an apartment development with up to 1,710 units in a project targeting middle-income earners.
The Newport Beach-based developer recently filed plans with the city to change the uses for a number of developable sites it owns near the intersection of the Santa Ana (5) Freeway and Sand Canyon Avenue.
The proposal, which would require the city to sign off on a general plan amendment and zone change, would increase the maximum number of residential units permitted in the affected areas from 9,481 to 10,824.
Irvine Co. in return would cut back on the maximum allowed commercial development in the area from about 8.1 million square feet to a little more than 6.6 million, according to city documents.
The changes would affect three sites, the largest a nearly 60-acre collection of parcels that long held a Traveland USA RV mall and family entertainment center.
Traveland operated on a portion of the site from the mid-1970s until 2012, when its lease wasn’t renewed. The property was razed and sits vacant.
Irvine Co. initially indicated it was considering a low-rise office development there after Traveland’s departure but never followed through. Now it’s planning an apartment project with an eye on more affordable units than what’s seen at most of its high-end rental complexes in the area.
The project, which could hold as many as 1,710 rental units, would be focused at people who earn between $60,000 and $90,000 annually, according to Irvine Co. officials. It hasn’t revealed rental rates.
Rents at Irvine apartment complexes average a little more than $2,200 per month, compared to the $1,871 countywide average, according to year-end data from CoStar Group Inc. Rents in Irvine are up about 3.4% year-over-year, according to the real estate data tracker.
Healthcare professionals at the nearby Hoag Hospital and Kaiser Permanente facilities on Sand Canyon Avenue are likely renters, along with teachers, according to Irvine Co. officials.
“We are excited to introduce this type of housing to the jobs-rich Irvine Spectrum area, allowing middle-income earners to live near their workplace,” an Irvine Co. spokesperson said in a statement.
The project would likely be two or three stories with individual units slightly smaller than other Irvine Co. apartment complexes in the area.
Up to 25,000 square feet of neighborhood commercial use and a roughly 5-acre park are included in the plans.
For-Sale, Storage
The Irvine Co. master proposal would also encompass an undeveloped portion of land north of the freeway at the intersection of Sand Canyon and Trabuco Road.
Another 250 for-sale homes and a 10,000-square-foot child care facility would be built there as another phase of development at the Cypress Village community,
Irvine Co. also owns a handful of small sites just off the freeway and Sand Canyon Avenue on Marine Way, which currently is zoned for nonresidential uses.
The company wants the collection of irregularly shaped parcels—which lead to the entrance of Orange County Great Park and sit close to a roughly 100-acre county-owned site being eyed for a mixed-use development—entitled for self-storage development and potentially a small office project, according to city filings.
The switch in uses at the sites and the cut in allowed commercial development should reduce area traffic by about 25,000 trips per day, according to Irvine Co. figures.
“This proposal helps create a better housing-to-job balance in the area and includes the elimination of more than 1.5 million square feet of commercial office space allowed in the city’s General Plan,” Irvine Co. said in a statement to the Business Journal.
Its proposals still face several months of scrutiny before construction could start.
Irvine Co. officials said an environmental impact report should be completed in the latter part of the year.
