The single-story home in Irvine‘s Great Park surrounded by amenities and lush greenery had all the makings for an idyllic retirement Patricia Kennedy thought when she moved in in 2014.
Now, she says a multimillion-dollar amphitheater project threatens to upend those plans.
“If my husband wasn’t so in love with that house, I would sell it in a minute right now and get the max I can out of it and move,” Kennedy said.
On Feb. 22, Irvine’s council voted to continue negotiations with concert promoter Live Nation for a 14,000-seat amphitheater at Great Park instead of opting for a city-controlled, smaller facility that could seat around 8,000 people. At that meeting, residents who spoke overwhelmingly favored a smaller venue because they worried about the noise and traffic impacts of the large-scale venue.
“They (City Council) are responding to the billion-dollar interest in this town and not the people,” said Kennedy. “It’s not a progression.”
She is not alone in feeling this way. Other Great Park residents, Camiar Ohadi, Naveed Siddiqui and Daniel Chao, all moved to Irvine in the last few years, drawn to its highly ranked school districts, safe neighborhoods and ample green spaces.
“Irvine and what Irvine Company built here years ago is a model suburb around the world,” said Siddiqui.
In September, the City Council initially approved an agreement with Live Nation for the design, construction and operation of a permanent outdoor 14,000-seat amphitheater to replace the temporary FivePoint Amphitheatre. In that agreement, the total cost of the project is estimated at $130 million with the city contributing $110 million and Live Nation $20 million.
However, that agreement wasn’t a done deal, with the concert promoter and the city going back and forth in negotiations on details such as the cost. City staffers eventually offered councilmembers an alternative at the last meeting, an 8,000-seat, city-controlled venue, but it was…
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