The Politics of a Botanical Garden at the Great Park

For those longtime Irvine residents who were around in 2002, there was an issue that did unite Democrats and Republicans – no Airport at El Toro.  And when the county voted in March of 2002, Measure W was a resounding victory for the “No Airport” side – 58 percent to 42 percent.  Home values went up overnight.  Flash forward to the Orange County Great Park in 2006/2007 from landscape architect Ken Smith’s internationally acclaimed original master plan; there was a Botanical Garden approved by the independent Great Park Board in 2007.  A magnificent Botanical Garden would have been part of a bridge to the Cultural Terrace.  It was innovative.    Ken Smith Botanical Garden Plan

Then came the 2008 financial crisis and then redevelopment funds dried up in 2012 and a Republican city council majority let FivePoint have their way with the property.  And they did.

The point here is a Botanical Garden was always a part of the Great Park Master Plan.  It was a priority to then Mayors Larry Agran, Beth Krom, and Sukhee Kang.  It was a priority for then council member Melissa Fox.   It was a priority for then council member Farrah Khan.

Then came the 2020 election and a Democratic majority on the city council.  Except it isn’t.  It’s a Five Point majority.

Four members of the current Irvine City Council broke campaign promises (and previous votes) on a Veterans Memorial Park and Cemetery at El Toro for a site at Anaheim Hills that sits on a fault line, in a wildfire and mudslide area, that’s likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop wit no plan to fund the entire amount.  The true winner of this decade-long battle is not the veterans who now have a cemetery – but FivePoint — which has first dibs on the ARDA site for development if the city does nothing with it.  To keep the promise of a Veterans Memorial Park (sans cemetery) at the ARDA site via the overwhelming Measure B vote – which denied a land swap with Five Point – Council member Agran proposed a Veterans Memorial Park with a giant American flag, a forest, a memorial site, and … a Botanical Garden!

As his fashion, Agran outlined the plan for council discussion via a memo to the City Manager and asked his council colleagues for a second.  Botanical Garden @ARDA

None of the other four members of the council would give him one. Because it was his idea.

Council member Tammy Kim sent this with her January email blast:

If you want to see a Botanical Garden here in Irvine, make your voice heard by supporting my item to establish a Botanical Garden at the Great Park during our January 25th Great Park Board Meeting at 2 PM. Together we can create a world-class botanical garden that our community can enjoy for years to come.  It’s time to put the “park” back in Great Park. You can also share your support by visiting the Great Park Development Survey as well as signing up for my Botanical Garden Interest form below to stay up to date on future botanical garden developments.

 Notice the phrase “my item.”

This isn’t the first time Council member Kim has appropriated an idea of Agran’s to make it her own. Council member Mike Carroll does the same thing.  A common criticism of Kim during the 2020 campaign was her lack of institutional knowledge of the city and certain issues.  And the Botanical Garden is a shining example of that. The notion of a Botanical Garden at the Great Park has existed for more than 15 years which I believe predates Kim’s arrival in Irvine.

This isn’t easy for me to write because I have friends on this city council, but every time Agran proposes an idea and asks for a second, the “Five Point Four” ignore him.  And in doing so do two specific things – deny the thousands of Irvine residents who cast a ballot for Agran his voice on the council (disappointing to so many who will need to decide if they will cast a vote for Khan or Kim in 2022 and 2024 because blanking a candidate on the ballot is always an option). And for Kim and Mayor Farrah Khan, this is a violation of a  2021 Democratic Party of Orange County resolution calling for elected Democrats to offer a second for a proposal from another Democratic member of said body to be discussed on a city council meeting, school board meeting or government body meeting when a second is required.  Have fun explaining this to the DPOC Central Committee when you seek DPOC endorsements for re-election, and don’t be surprised when your endorsement is pulled and your endorsement comes the hard way.

Not giving a second to talk about an issue is undemocratic.

Any Agran measure that gets a second for being debated is still likely to be voted down 4-1 but aren’t Irvine residents and voters entitled to have the issue discussed?  Yes we are.

And a Botanical Garden is still listed on the City’s Great Park website as such:

BOTANICAL GARDENS

Botanical gardens have been a consistent presence in the planning of the Orange County Great Park, and have been included in varying locations and sizes since the 2007 Master Plan. In 2017, the City conducted a feasibility study for a 60-acre Botanical Garden in the Cultural Terrace. The preliminary findings estimated costs of $50 million to $55 million to develop and $3.6 million to operate in a stabilized year. It would have the potential to generate $1.8 million in earned revenue from admissions, fees, programming, facility rentals, and retails (sic) sales. No funding nor project schedule is identified to date, but staff and the Great Park Garden Coalition are informally discussing terms of a possible Exclusive Negotiating Agreement. The coalition has also engaged Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture students to inspire design ideas for a future garden.

Maybe the City ought to update this page.

So maybe Tammy Kim can “hold Larry Agran’s hand while he explains how giving an honest review of his plans for a Veterans Memorial Park and a Botanical Garden can help her keep her campaign promise to place a Veterans Memorial Park at the ARDA site.”  (Kim used a variant of this “take my hand” language to Agran regarding the ARDA site which was remarkably condescending and disrespectful to a colleague – perhaps it’s a generational issue on her part — in describing how ARDA won’t go to a developer when the smart money bet is it will).

Currently, Kim’s “item” calls for a 75-acre Botanical Garden which has no staff report on a possible location, no cost estimates, and no plans for how the Botanical Gardens would be paid for at all.  But she wants this to be her idea.  It’s an idea that predates her election by more than a decade.  Agran’s plan does have a report, a location, a plan for funding.  So why not discuss this at a council meeting?

Agran’s plan is centered on ARDA with estimates on City-incurred costs to implement the demolition, cleanup and site clearance plan for the ARDA site, estimated at less than $20 million.  And these funds would be paid from the City’s Great Park Development Funds (currently around $100 million) which would then be partially or wholly reimbursed by state and/or federal funds.  And CalVet has already reviewed and approved the site for a Veterans Memorial Park.  Those FivePoint neighborhoods will likely love the idea — a memorial park without headstones.

I’m asking Mayor Khan to offer a second for a review of Agran’s plan.  I’ll ask Tammy Kim for one too, but she’ll probably need to check in with Mike Carroll (R-FivePoint) before saying she wasn’t asked for a second despite the memo to the city manager she was copied on asking her for one.