The City of Irvine is one step closer to purchasing the All American Asphalt facility and has officially entered escrow on the $285 million property located in North Irvine.

However, while the city plans to take ownership of the land this February, Irvine residents will need to endure years of more development before the vision of the Gateway Preserve comes to fruition.

Once completed, the Gateway Preserve will become a 700 acre open space preserve, consisting of two new parks and a 70 acre residential village.

Pete Carmichael, Assistant City Manager, explained in a presentation to the Irvine City Council on Tuesday, July, 11, that the city entered escrow for the facility with a 10% deposit in June, adding that he anticipates the facility to cease operations at the site by November.

As Irvine enters what Carmichael referred to as Phase 2 of the project, it will engage in parks and community design, and work to address other environmental aspects such as fire risk, project management and acoustics of the area.

As Irvine waits to take control of the land, Carmichael explained that the city will need to invest an additional $5 million from the Gateway Project Fund on an environmental review of the site in order to move forward on the creation of the Gateway Preserve.

“In total, what we’re asking for tonight, after including for contingency, is a little over $5.8 million. This gets us through probably the next 18-24 months, which includes preparing the site for development, going out to solicitation for a development partner that would be interested in partnering with the city for the development of the site, and purchase of the land,” he said.

Carmichael also said the city would need to invest approximately $670,000 for off-site utility work in order to expand water and sewer capacity for the Gateway project. The cost, according to a staff report, would be reimbursed through the Irvine Company.

“There’s a number of projects going on in the area of the Gateway Preserve — the Jeffrey Road extension north of Portola, Orchard Hills Neighborhood 4 — as part of those projects, the Irvine Company is putting in significant upgrades to recycled and domestic water. There’s an opportunity to expand that construction project to serve the project we’re contemplating,” he explained. “Joining forces [with the Irvine Company] so we don’t have to go back in and rip those streets up later at greater cost and greater disruption.”

Irvine will also need to establish the Gateway Preserve open space, through a Recreation and Resource Management Plan, which is approved by state and federal wildlife agencies. Carmichael added that the city will seek to amend a partnership with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy to help manage the Gateway Preserve, as it currently does for Bommer Canyon and other open spaces in Irvine.

“Establishing the Preserve, much like the residential village, takes a significant planning and entitlement process. The operative document is really the Recreation and Resource Management Plan, it would need to be updated to accommodate the Gateway Preserve plan. It then becomes the entitlement document through the federal and state wildlife agencies,” he said. “What we’re proposing is we do this in partnership with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy — the city’s contract with IRC provides for additional work that is just what is needed here.”

In terms of a timeline for the Gateway Preserve, and more so the clearance of the All American Asphalt site, Irvine Council Member Larry Agran wondered when residents might be able to see changes to the area.

“The asphalt plant will be ceasing operation by November. We will own it soon thereafter, so the question is — what do we do with it and when?” Agran asked.

Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi explained that there will be “activity” on the site within the ensuing months. Adding that Irvine is tentatively scheduled to take the property over by February, but could be subject to change.

“Between the shutdown in November and when we ultimately close escrow, there’s an extended period of several months where we will be working with the current AAA owners to really take down all of the existing materials that they’d like to have removed,” Chi explained. “Our purchase and sales agreement calls for the removal of certain tanks and other tribute items on the property. For example, there’s a rock that pays homage to the opening of the plant they’d like to take with them.”

Over the years, the facility located near Orchard Hills has become a source of fearful complaints and worries from homeowners over potential toxicity of foul odors being produced by the hot-mix asphalt production site. Some potential home buyers even argued that the presence of the asphalt facility was not disclosed during the buying process of their home.

Since 2019, the facility has become the subject of more than 800 complaints filed with the Air Quality Management District regarding foul odor wafting into the surrounding residential areas.

Despite testing from the South Coast AQMD that indicates that the asphalt facility was one of the largest producers of known carcinogens in Irvine in 2020.

With three odor violations in 2022, and more than 1,000 odor complaints since 2019, an October 2022 report from the SCAQMD indicates that emissions produced by the facility have not exceeded regulatory standards.

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