Asking the Irvine Company to consider the wishes of Woodbridge residents is pointless. They will do want they want to do to make more money. But the Irvine City Council has the power to refuse building permits, without which the Irvine Company can't legally build or change anything. So the solution for Woodbridge is not to beg the Irvine Company, but instead to change the City Council. There is a candidate for Irvine City named Melissa Fox who has promised to prevent the Irvine Company from changing the character of Woodbridge or Woodbridge Village Center. In her blog post called "Woodbridge’s Fate will be Decided at the Ballot Box," she wrote: "Woodbridge residents are gravely concerned that new development will soon add unwanted housing and traffic congestion to Woodbridge and forever change the character of their beautiful community – without their input or consent. Here is what the group Friends of WVC (Woodbridge Village Center) recently said in an email: “Big changes are in the works for the Woodbridge Village Center. The Irvine Company is presently evaluating options to replace the Village Center with either a residential development (most likely condominiums), or with a standard shopping center. Regardless of the option selected, the current Village Center will most likely be destroyed.” When Woodbridge opened on Father’s Day in 1975, it was Irvine’s premier master planned community, showcasing Irvine’s commitment to creating villages of single family homes and townhouses, with parks, greenbelts, bicycle trails, interconnecting pathways, open space, and neighborhood shopping. By any measure, Woodbridge has been a fantastic success. Community spirit has been, and continues to be, tremendously high. Sure, there are a few problems and some things that people would like to see changed or improved. For example, many people would like to see a new anchor store in the Village Center and new coffee houses and restaurants. Liike most of Irvine, the WVC could use more ample and more secure bicycle parking, especially since Woodbridge has some of the most used and beautiful bikeways in the City. But these few problems and suggested minor changes are very small in comparison to the great sense of community belonging and community pride shared by the residents of Woodbridge. Woodbridge remains one of Irvine’s most walkable, bikeable, and beautiful communities. And, as someone wrote in OC Housing News, “the Woodbridge Center is an integral part of Irvine, connected to both lakes, Woodbridge high school and walking trails, literally in the center of Irvine.” After 40 years of success, the people of Woodbridge love their community, and they love their Woodbridge Village Center. That’s why people are so upset by the prospect that their Village Center will be destroyed and replaced with high density apartments and condos or office buildings What people may not realize is that the City Council has the full legal power to tell the developer that it can’t do whatever it wants to the Woodbridge Village Center, and specifically that it can’t unilaterally change the fundamental character of the community. In fact, I believe it is the obligation of the City Council to ensure that the public interest – in preventing over-crowding, increased crime and congestion, and in preserving the character of our communities – comes before the private interests of developers, no matter how big and powerful those developers may be. As another Woodbridge resident put it in OC Housing News, “Slow the growth. Build with creativity and respect for the Woodbridge neighborhood. The great recession is behind us. Time to dial back to measured growth and masterful planning such as the community was built on.” I could not agree more. Unfortunately, the current City Council majority of Mayor Steven Choi, Councilmember Jeffrey Lalloway and Councilmember Christina Shea, see it quite differently. They want more development, faster development, and denser development. This a City Council majority that has hastily approved an unprecedented 10,000 additional new houses and apartments in Irvine (bringing along an additional 20,000-30,000 new cars and 30,000-50,000 new people), jamming our traffic and over-crowding our schools. If the current City Council majority is retained – if Mayor Steven Choi and Councilmember Jeffrey Lalloway are re-elected – nothing will stop developers from doing whatever the developers want to do, in Woodbridge and throughout the City. In contrast, I pledge that when I am elected to the City Council I will use the full legal authority of the Council to prevent runaway development, to demand that the voices of Irvine’s residents be heard before any new development is approved, and to ensure that no new condos, office buildings or housing tracts will be permitted without proper planning and consideration of their impact on our traffic, our schools, and the character of our communities. The fate of the Woodbridge Village Center – and Woodbridge’s survival as a family oriented community with a relaxed village atmosphere – will be decided this November, at the ballot box." http://melissafoxblog.com/2014/09/10/woodbridges-fate-will-be-decided-at-the-ballot-box/
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