IRVINE – The city will begin reviewing a proposed project that includes 1,960 apartment units along Sand Canyon Avenue near Interstate 5, an area some residents say is already congested with traffic.

The City Council on March 14 voted 3-2 in favor of starting to process developer Irvine Co.’s application, which is expected to return to the council for voting in early 2018.

Councilwomen Christina Shea and Melissa Fox opposed it, saying they worried about the impacts of increased population on traffic and schools.

“This is just an application,” Councilman Jeff Lalloway said. “This is not approval. This will come back to us next year, and if we don’t like what (Irvine Co. has) come up with and we don’t like the way these impacts have been mitigated, it’s in our discretion … to say no.”

The Irvine Co.’s proposal consists of three separate developments:

• Up to 1,710 apartments, a 25,000-square-foot shopping center and a five-acre park on the former Traveland USA site off the I-5 freeway across Sand Canyon Avenue from La Quinta Inn & Suites. The site is currently designated for research and industrial uses.

• Up to 250 apartments, a 1.7-acre park and a 10,000-square-foot child care center on a vacant land at Sand Canyon Avenue and Great Park Boulevard. The site was previously anticipated as a 205,000-square-foot commercial center.

• Up to 530,000 square feet of nonresidential uses, potentially a mini-warehouse, on vacant land near the State Route 133 and I-5 interchange.

To develop these sites, the Irvine Co. needs to convince the city to amend the General Plan, which defines the city’s long-term plan for development, and change zoning. These changes would result in 1,343 more housing units than what’s currently allowed in the General Plan while decreasing non-residential uses by 1.52 million square feet.

The new apartments would provide housing for those who work in the Spectrum area, Irvine Co. senior vice president Michael Le Blanc told the council. There are 57,000 people working within two miles of the proposed sites, and these units target those making between $48,000 and $66,000, about 25 percent of that workforce, he said.

What could complicate the matter is the county’s plan to build 2,103 housing units, as well as 220,000 square feet of commercial space and a 242-room hotel, on its narrow strip of land adjacent the Orange County Great Park. That site is just across the freeways from where the Irvine Co. wants to build 1,710 apartments.

The county’s development itself could jam I-5, the Sand Canyon Avenue freeway ramps and nearby intersections, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans.

During Tuesday’s public hearing, city staff asked the council whether they should start evaluating the Irvine Co. project by looking into traffic, environmental, fiscal and other potential impacts.

Five residents spoke against the project, saying it would add a few thousand cars to Sand Canyon during commute times.

Irvine resident Mark Newgent told the council his son has been on a waiting list for three years to go to Woodbury Elementary School closest to their house.

“Why would this city approve more rental units when we can’t handle a number of students we currently have in our schools?” Newgent said. “I think we need to plan better.”

Courtney Santos, a UC Irvine employee who ran for City Council last year, supported the project. The area needs more rental housing to meet the demand of the Millennials and seniors on a fixed income, she said.

“I am very sad that my own grandmother cannot afford to live here, where I can help to care for her,” Santos said. “Instead she must live in the desert where housing costs are lower.”

Councilwoman Shea said the Irvine Co. should consider making affordable some of the thousands of luxury apartments in the Spectrum area, such as Los Olivos, The Village and The Park.

“People are really mad,” Shea said. “They are mad about a lot of apartments being built. They are mad about excessive housing. We need to have more of a global conversation about affordable housing, how we are going to do that.”

Councilwoman Fox said the project came at a bad time. The city is in the midst of updating the General Plan and reinstating a Transportation Commission to fight traffic congestion, while there are dozens of other development projects in the pipeline.

“We are ahead of ourselves,” she said. “Please consider putting this over for just a couple more months until we have in place a more robust system to understand how we are going to deal with these great challenges of our city.”

Mayor Don Wagner said he is not afraid to stop the project if its impacts are insurmountable. It would be an abuse of government power to not give chance to a property owner to resolve issues, he added.

If approved, the project would be built in phases over five to seven years, according to a city staff report. People wouldn’t move into the new apartments until at least 2020, Le Blanc said.

Staff Writer Jordan Graham contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: tshimura@scng.com