Irvine, CA, October 13, 2017– After the Irvine City Council stunned residents by voting to abandon plans to build the Veterans Cemetery in the Great Park, and instead turn the land over to developer FivePoint Communities, Edward S. Pope, a retired teacher and veteran, launched a grassroots campaign to “fight City Hall.”
Pope, a former high school “Teacher of the Year” honoree, has organized a team of volunteers to begin gathering the required 12,000 voter signatures on a Referendum Petition to reverse the City Council’s action by placing the matter before the voters in a special election.
The Referendum campaign will focus on engaging residents at local stores and coffee shops across Irvine – starting today.
With the launch of the campaign, Pope issued the following statement:
“10 days before California was to begin building the 125-acre Veterans Cemetery in the tranquil Great Park, the Irvine City Council voted 3-2 to abandon the project and hand the land over to mega-developer FivePoint Communities for massive office and commercial development. In return, FivePoint wants to see the Veterans Cemetery built at the El Toro “Y” alongside two major freeways (I-5 and I-405).
“As a veteran and someone who has called Irvine home for more than forty years, I am outraged by this land-swap scheme that dishonors our veterans and enables FivePoint Communities to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in windfall profits. Their scheme is to grab this property and quickly develop it in ways that are totally incompatible with the Great Park and surrounding residential neighborhoods. In fact, the FivePoint development scheme would generate 10,000 car and truck trips every day, adding to the already terrible traffic and environmental issues already facing our city.
“We only have until November 8th to gather the signatures necessary to stop this travesty and restore Irvine’s promise to Orange County veterans. I have great faith in my fellow Irvine residents and am confident that our campaign will be successful.”
To learn more about the campaign and how you can help gather signatures or make a financial contribution, visit https://savetheveteranscemetery.org
Where did Pope serve?