Plans to demolish an office campus and replace it with a large warehouse complex have been altered.
The office campus would instead be replaced with a 25-acre residential development.
Irvine’s City Council approved an agreement on Feb. 11 with owners of the Von Alton I LLC property at Irvine Business Complex (IBC) to abandon a proposed two-building and 541,344-square-foot warehouse project at 2121 Alton Pkwy. and 16715-16969 Von Karman Ave., opening the door for the city and developer to build new housing.
Von Alton, the developer, and the city would have until Sept. 24 to move plans forward for proposed residential development, according to Irvine city staff.
Irvine’s Planning Commission supported the warehouse development with a 3-2 vote in November.
There is a path for the city of Irvine to take over the 25.54-acre property, per the terms of the City Council-approved agreement.
Von Alton would have to pay the city $12.4 million per acre to transfer ownership of the property to Irvine, if the developer decides it wants to continue pursuing an industrial project. That works out to Von Alton paying Irvine $316.7 million to not develop housing on its property.
What the housing development would look like, such as the number of units, multifamily versus single-family, or price points, has not been decided.
Possible Reduction of Industrial Development
The council’s direction, for now, is likely indicative of Irvine’s intent to reduce the number of new industrial projects within city limits, especially with the recent enactment of Assembly Bill 98.
AB 98, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law last September, establishes a minimum amount of distance between residential properties and new warehouses.
The Irvine City Council, coincidentally, rezoned the IBC late last year, allowing for as many as 15,000 homes to be built in an area dominated by commercial properties.
That rezoning was approved nearly 18 months after Irvine’s council members looked into managing the effects of large-scale warehouse and logistics projects within the city.
The attempt to wrangle industrial development within Irvine was in response, according to a memo written by Mayor Larry Agran and Councilmember Kathleen Treseder earlier this year, to “an influx of applications that we have seen for siting such facilities in the city.”
Irvine council members discussed new regulations in the review process for new warehouse and industrial projects in 2023 but failed to approve any policies allowing for such oversight.
Agran and Treseder, in their Jan. 5 memo, requested city officials to revisit the proposed regulations of industrial development within Irvine.
“The city has continued to see new warehouse/logistics projects being approved throughout Irvine, and increasingly, we have seen neighborhood compatibility problems, roadway infrastructure degradation and environmental impacts being created by these facilities,” Agran and Treseder said in their memo.
“With the IBC and the Spectrum areas both becoming home to an increasing number of residential projects, coupled with the significant environmental and roadway infrastructure impacts that these facilities generate from increased big-rig truck traffic, the regulations considered by the city back in April 2023 were aimed at establishing an additional entitlement review process for future warehouse and logistics projects,” the memo to Irvine city staff continued.
A proposed regulation on industrial development in Irvine could be considered at a future council meeting.
Assembly Bill 98
Warehouse development and trucking activities associated with logistics will soon be regulated by a new state law that would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
Those new regulations, approved by the state legislature and signed into law Newsom, would establish truck routes that avoid residential areas and buffer zones between warehouses and housing, parks and schools.
Jameson Rice and Kristine Orozco Little, attorneys with Holland & Knight, said AB 98 aims to reduce emissions and improve public health, but the increased regulations could be burdensome for warehouse operators.
“Warehouse operators will likely face increased costs because of the infrastructure and equipment requirements, including the need for detailed truck routing plans and separate truck entrances,” Rice and Little said in a Holland & Knight blog post. “Additionally, the location constraints imposed by the buffer zones could limit the availability of suitable land for new developments, potentially slowing the approval and construction processes.
“Though these measures aim to enhance environmental protection and community health, they may also lead to higher operational costs and logistical challenges for warehouse operators in California,” Rice and Little continued.
