The Irvine Company says it plans to create the city’s “largest nature park” as part of its new vision for the Oak Creek Golf Course, and is soliciting feedback from community members for what that natural space should look like.
The real estate giant announced recently its intention to carve out from the 193-acre, privately-owned golf course “more than 50 acres of open, natural park space.” It has also reduced the housing component of its proposal, officials said. At the same time, a residents’ group is trying to force a public vote.
That nature reserve would complete the Jeffrey Open Space Trail and create a seamless pathway between the Limestone Canyon Nature Preserve and the Quail Hill Nature Preserve. Features of the nature park being evaluated include bridges, creeks, meadows, nature trails, streams, woodlands and a nature center for community events.
“Irvine has been master planned since its founding, with a focus on providing abundant open spaces, parks and trails for the community to enjoy,” Irvine Company Senior Vice President Jeff Davis said. “This planned nature park will significantly expand Irvine’s nationally ranked park system, with additional recreation opportunities in the center of Irvine.”
The remainder of the course would anchor a “lower-density village,” which calls for less housing than what the Irvine Company proposed last year. How many homes that ends up being is still being studied, a company spokesperson said.
The Irvine Company previously sought approval from the City Council to build a 3,100-home village; plans for the residential neighborhood included parks, pools, paths, a school and traffic improvements. Portions of the golf course and adjacent properties are zoned for up to 5,000 homes, part of the city’s effort to meet state housing mandates.
But the council stopped short of green-lighting the development when residents argued doing so would flout a 1988 voter-approved initiative that designated the golf course, and other areas in the city, as open space.
Voter initiatives
Around the same time the Irvine Company unveiled its new proposal for the golf course, the resident-led Committee to Protect All Irvine Open Space filed on Jan. 15 with the city an initiative to “reaffirm” the 1988 measure and require developments on land designated as open space be approved by voters going forward.
While privately owned by the Irvine Company, Oak Creek Golf Course was included in the 1988 initiative as a planned conservation area.
The Irvine Company’s proposal to build 3,100 homes on the golf course sparked a debate last year on whether the development required voter approval. City Attorney Jeffrey Melching presented to the council four draft ballot measures to provide opportunities for voter approval, although he said the city was not bound by the initiative to do so.
Three of the measures focused on whether voter approval would be required before any development plans were approved in areas of open space. One measure required voter approval for all changes to designated open space, but allowed an exception for Oak Creek in exchange for 315 acres of replacement open space.
The City Council last year weighed putting one of those options on the November 2025 ballot, but ultimately decided the estimated $2 million bill was too costly.
This time around, Melching reaffirmed that the City Council “is not legally required to seek voter approval to change the open space designation.”
“The initiative did not directly amend the General Plan; it required the city to do so,” he said, which appears to have never happened. And “that legal conclusion is separate from the issue of voter intent.”
“Many residents understandably believe the measure was meant to permanently preserve Oak Creek as open space. That belief may reflect how the initiative was perceived at the time,” he said. “However, my position is not based on intent, but on the actual language of the initiative and the legal mechanism used to create the designation.”
Rolf Parkes, a longtime Irvine resident and spokesperson for the Committee to Protect All Irvine Open Space, said the group is hoping to get the required 18,000 registered voters to sign the petition to place on the November ballot the new initiative they are proposing to settle the matter.
Parkes said he was around when the 1988 initiative was approved by voters, and argues the Irvine Company’s proposed development is “a violation” of the initiative and necessitates voter consent.
“Our space is so impacted by the amount of people,” he said, “and the inordinate amount of traffic that exists today. Putting thousands of homes in the area, nothing’s going to move, how are people going to get in and out?”
Councilmember Kathleen Treseder, who last year was an advocate for putting the development up for voter approval, said she would support the housing project without going to voters as long as the development meets the city’s affordable housing requirements.
“Right now, it looks like the Irvine Company has made changes to their plans, where they’ve increased the open space that the land will be holding, and it is much higher in quality than a golf course,” she said. “And so even if they’re developing part of that, I think that they are holding to the open space initiative under those circumstances. So under their current plan, I would be supportive of that.”
Irvine Company officials said they’re aiming to put proposed development plans before the council by early spring. Irvine residents can register for an in-person planning session or provide feedback on development plans at irvineconnection.com/nature-park-study.
