The Irvine Company has scaled back its plan to redevelop Oak Creek Golf Club, cutting the proposed housing count and dramatically expanding a planned public park, as the project moves into environmental review. The updated proposal calls for 2,400 new housing units on 280 acres, down from the roughly 3,100 residences the developer originally floated for the site.
According to The Real Deal, the company reduced planned apartments from 1,600 to 900 units while increasing attached ownership homes from 485 to 825. The number of for-sale residences overall was held steady at 1,500, but the mix of price points was widened, with company officials suggesting some one-story, 950-square-foot flats could be priced under $1 million. Traditional townhomes in the plan range from 1,500 to 2,400 square feet. Rob Elliott, the Irvine Company's senior vice president for planning and design, said residents wanted a wider range of for-sale options to meet different community needs, per the same outlet's report.
The company said it spoke with over 10,000 residents while reworking the proposal, according to the same report. The planned public park also grew substantially, from about 8 acres to more than 60 acres, and the company has proposed setting aside land for a future elementary school and building a nature center on site.
A Formal Planning Milestone Already Cleared
The rework follows a significant municipal step earlier this year. In April, the Irvine City Council approved a zoning text amendment establishing a formal framework for Planning Area 52, known as Oak Park, capping maximum development density at 2,400 residential units, according to the City of Irvine. That came after the Irvine Planning Commission recommended the framework unanimously, 7-0, in March. The Irvine Company has now entered the environmental review phase, and the Irvine City Council is expected to review the matter again next year after required approval processes, with final sign-off expected once that process concludes.
The planned park expansion is meant to solve a longstanding gap in the city's trail network. The proposed Oak Creek Nature Park would fill what's been called the “missing middle” of the Jeffrey Open Space Trail, adding more than 5 miles of interior trails plus two new pedestrian bridges over rail tracks and Irvine Center Drive, the Irvine Standard reported.
Why the City Faces Pressure to Build
The debate over Oak Creek sits inside a larger state housing mandate. Under California's 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Allocation covering 2021 through 2029, the city of Irvine must plan to permit 23,610 new housing units, including thousands reserved for low- and very-low-income households, according to the City of Irvine. The city's updated General Plan, approved in 2024, already allows up to 5,000 high-density apartments on the Oak Creek golf course and adjacent properties, framing the Irvine Company's lower-density village concept as an alternative path to meeting those targets, per Irvine Connection.
Opposition to redeveloping the site centers on Initiative Resolution 88-1, a 1988 voter-approved measure that designated the golf course as protected open space. Irvine's City Attorney has stated the City Council holds legal authority to alter that designation without a public ballot vote, according to Voice of OC. A grassroots group called Save Irvine Open Space began gathering resident signatures in early 2026 for a local ballot initiative aimed at blocking development and preserving the course as open land, per the Kwon Home Group.
As part of preliminary framework negotiations in 2025, the Irvine Company offered to dedicate more than 300 acres of permanent open space in the Portola Springs and Orchard Hills areas to the city in exchange for redeveloping Oak Creek, Voice of OC reported. If fully approved, the project would become the Irvine Company's 23rd master-planned residential village, tentatively titled Oak Park Village.
From Fairways to Foundations
Oak Creek Golf Club opened in September 1996 as an 18-hole public par-71 course, designed by golf course architect Tom Fazio on 193 acres of former citrus groves, according to the Los Angeles Times. Typical Irvine homes cost around $1.5 million, per Zillow data, underscoring the affordability pressure behind the push for lower-cost for-sale options in the new plan.
The Oak Creek proposal isn't the Irvine Company's only active residential project in the region. In nearby Newport Beach, the developer broke ground in May on a five-story, 184-unit apartment building converting an underutilized parking garage into housing near Fashion Island, reflecting a broader shift among Orange County master planners toward repurposing non-residential land amid the housing crunch.
