Sweet Orange

Tomorrow I will write about upcoming events at the Orange County Great Park. In preparation for that, here is a reminder of what the Great Park is all about:

The Orange County Great Park is located on land that was once part of the El Toro Marine Air Station. Before that, it was Irvine Ranch bean fields and grazing land, and, before that, Mexican and Spanish grazing land. The Juanenos (Acagchemen) and Gabrielino Indians also had a presence on this land.

The City of Irvine is developing this publicly owned land, which is approximately the size of New York’s Central Park, as one of the first great metropolitan parks of the 21st century. The City’s vision is to provide a recreational, cultural and social gathering spot for Orange County residents as well as others who are near to or far from Orange County. As Central Park, Balboa Park and Golden Gate Park are great metropolitan parks built in previous eras, the vision for the Orange County Great Park is that it will be a great metropolitan park built in this era.

The private land that surrounds the public Great Park land and is called the Great Park Neighborhoods was also part of the former El Toro Marine Air Station. Current plans for the Great Park Neighborhoods include the building of homes as well as commercial, educational and recreational features. The private Great Park land combined with the public Great Park land is over six square miles.

GRAPHIC COURTESY THE ORANGE COUNTY GREAT PARK CORPORATION

At times, I will be writing about the Orange County Great Park development, so I thought that I would provide a brief overview that defines the transformation of this approximately seven square miles of this former airbase. This overview will provide a reference point for the future posts.

PHOTO OF CONVERTED HANGAR COURTESY LENNAR’S GREAT PARK NEIGHBORHOODS

The Orange County Great Park, which was once the El Toro Marine Air Base and is approximately twice the size of New York’s Central Park, is being developed by the City of Irvine as one of the first great metropolitan parks of the 21st century. The City’s vision is to provide a recreational, cultural and social gathering spot for Orange County residents as well as others who are near to or far from Orange County. As Central Park, Balboa Park and Golden Gate Park are great metropolitan parks built in previous eras, the City’s vision for the Orange County Great Park is that it will be a great metropolitan park built in this era.

Homebuilder Lennar owns and is developing the land that, roughly speaking, surrounds the publicly held city land. Lennar’s vision is to create housing adjacent to the public development as well as build commercial, educational, and recreational features. Lennar is calling its development The Great Park Neighborhoods. While Leannar and the City of Irvine are responsible for the development of their respective areas, these two entities are working cooperatively in this development.

With the recent submission of the Comprehensive Park Design to the Great Park board, development of the park is ready to move from planning to implementation.

“Design and engineering of Park’s elements and infrastructure are contained in the Comprehensive Park Design. Design elements include the Sports Park, Wildlife Corridor, Agua Chinon, upper and lower canyon, the Lake, the Bosque, agriculture elements, and many other features identified by a variety of stakeholders throughout the planning and design process.”—from the Orange County Great Park website

• Video of an overview of the development of the Orange County Great Park
• Video of the free Orange County Great Park balloon rides

Awards received:

• American Planning Association, National Excellence Award for Innovation in Regional Planning
• American Society of Landscape Architects, Professional Award of Honor for Analysis and Planning

Note: This overview is mostly a reprint from one of my Redfin posts. To read the complete post, see “The Orange County Great Park: Is This Thing Buildable?” and “Building the Orange County Great Park: Do You Want Common, or Do You Want Visionary?”