5-0 Decision to Maintain General Plan for RSJ Golf Course!

Last night the Irvine Planning Commission held a Special Meeting immediately following their regular, twice-monthly meeting to discuss an emergency agenda item regarding the Rancho San Joaquin golf course.  The Planning Commission proposed a resolution to uphold the City's General Plan with no changes to be considered for the RSJ golf course.  The vote was 5-0 in favor of the resolution. 

This decision means that if a General Plan amendment application was submitted to the Planning Commission by a developer to change the zoning of the RSJ golf course to allow additional development on the golf course property, it will be denied by the Planning Commission.

Here's what one of our Irvine residents observed during the meeting:

"The Irvine Planning Commission met last night in a special meeting to address the looming issue about the possible sale of the golf course to Mo Honarkar. About 100 pumped-up residents with signs packed the meeting room and spilled out into the halls.

After two hours of public comment (with dozens more waiting to comment, including me) the Chairman [Greg Smith] paused the meeting and told the crowd that he'd allow all comments to be heard but given that it was now 9:45 pm perhaps everyone would rather hear 'action' than additional comments. He hinted that the commissioners had heard enough and would like to move on to discussion and a vote. We applauded with a 'go-ahead.'

"They discussed for 10 minutes, then voted at 9:55 pm. It was a resounding 5-0 in favor of a motion proposed by Commissioner Anthony Kuo that said they would not consider any request for a zoning change of the golf course property. It means that any such application would die at their level.

"The Commissioners got a standing ovation. The Chairman said in all his years in City government he had never been applauded like that by attendees of a public meeting. His response to us was, 'This happened because you were organized, reasonable and of one voice.'"

Our RSJ Golf Course Coalition thanks Planning Commissioner Anthony Kuo for placing this item on the agenda.  We also thank Chair Greg Smith for calling the special meeting.  And, we thank ALL of the Planning Commissioners who voted to affirm the continued designation under the General Plan of the current zoning for the RSJ Golf Course site:

• Chair Greg Smith
• Vice Chair Dustin Nirschl
• Chair Pro Tem John Duong
• Commissioner Patty Bartlett
• Commissioner Anthony Kuo

This same agenda item to uphold the General Plan will be on the City Council meeting agenda which will be held on Tuesday, August 28th.  We ask for everyone's support to attend and/or speak at this next City Council meeting.  Be sure to add yourself to our email list on the website's main page so that you can receive details on attending the August 28th meeting.

Click photo to enlarge