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Irvine City Council Voices Major Concerns About Great Park's Future

IRVINE (CBSLA.com) — The Irvine City Council Tuesday voiced major concerns about the future of the Great Park property.

KCAL9's Stacey Butler reported that the city is deciding whether to give the builder, FivePoint Communities, the green light to build 4,600 homes in exchange for a zoning change that would allow the company to convert industrial land to home sites. The builder would promise to build and maintain 688 acres of the Great Park, which would include public parks, soccer fields and community centers.

Some council members, however, had questions about the proximity of a proposed high school to a jail that is scheduled to be built at the Great Park.

Councilman Larry Agran also questioned the toxicity in two landfills on the site, despite an environmental impact report that stated the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station had been cleaned up and is now safe to build on.

Agran called the report deficient and said building a high school near a toxic dump would be dangerous.

"I'd say you ought to take a look at what's going on at Malibu High School right now. Malibu High School is shutting down classroom by classroom because of something they didn't know about, but they learned about, which is they were sitting next to PCBs and three classrooms were tested. This is after six people came down with thyroid disease, three of them thyroid cancer," he said.

As of 10 p.m., the council meeting was still in session.

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New Plan For Irvine's Great Park Sparks Heated Debate

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