Planning commission recommends council approve 1,792‑unit Santa Clara Park project at 2518 Mission College Boulevard

The Planning Commission recommended Feb. 19 that the City Council approve the Irvine Company’s proposal to redevelop the Santa Clara Park office campus at 2518 Mission College Boulevard as a 1,792‑unit residential community.

Senior planner Namisha Agrawal told commissioners the applicant seeks four related approvals: an addendum to the Freedom Circle Future Focus Area environmental impact report and an associated mitigation monitoring and reporting program; a General Plan text amendment adding a policy to allow a planned‑development rezoning to satisfy certain comprehensive plan requirements; a rezoning from high‑intensity office and R&D to Planned Development (PD); and a vesting tentative subdivision map to create six lots, including a public park. “The item before you is the residential project at 2518 Mission College Boulevard,” Agrawal said during staff’s presentation.

Why it matters: the site is inside the Freedom Circle Future Focus Area Plan (adopted 06/07/2022) and the project would convert roughly 25.74 acres of office park into a dense residential complex intended to help the city meet state RHNA production targets. The commission approved each of the four staff recommendations following public comment and applicant presentations; the items will go next to City Council for final action.

Project details and design: Irvine Company representatives said the plan would construct five five‑story residential buildings on five parcels, plus a sixth parcel developed as a 3.48‑acre public park that aligns with an approved park on the adjacent Greystar site and the San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail. The development footprint and site plan presented to the commission show a combined total of about 4.225 acres of public parkland when paired with the approved Greystar park across…