Quarterly Newsletter - Q1 2023

We are thrilled to announce that negotiations between the City of Irvine and The Irvine Company have resulted in securing a four-acre plot of land. The land is earmarked for affordable rental housing and is in the process of being transferred to the Irvine Community Land Trust for development. We expect to complete the acquisition of the property by the end of 2023 or early 2024.
 
We currently have a team evaluating the site at Sand Canyon and Great Park Boulevard to determine the total number of apartment units and how it will be divvied into one, two and three-bedroom homes. 
 
“Our hope is to have the land transfer complete and be able to begin construction early in 2024. To steward this project, a new development committee has been formed, comprised of several board members with expertise in residential development,” said ICLT Executive Director Mark Asturias.
 
While this project is in very early phases of planning, we welcome input from the community on the amenities they would like to see in this project. If you have an idea you would like to share, please email us at info@irvineclt.org and write “Sand Canyon Housing Site" in the subject line.
 
Please note, there is NO INTEREST LIST AT THIS TIME. So please don’t call or write to ask! 
 
Instead, please go to our website and sign up for our mailing list and click the box at the bottom of the form for rental updates. This way you can stay informed and stay tuned for more information to come toward the end of the year.

ICLT is pleased to announce our newly elected executive committee which will lead the board over the next year: Tammy Kim, Chair; Ryan Aeh, Vice Chair; Nancy Donnelly, Secretary; and Jong Limb, Treasurer.
 
We also welcome two new members to its board of directors – Newport Partners Founder Jong Limb, and Irvine City Councilmember Larry Agran.
 
Jong Limb brings to ICLT extensive background in affordable housing development. As Founder of Newport Partners, he is responsible for the overall strategy and management of the company’s platforms. He formed Newport Partners in 1998, sourcing tax credit investments on behalf of institutional investors, and has since grown the firm to provide asset management, property management, development, and construction of affordable housing projects.
 
Prior to forming Newport Partners, Limb served as President of Edison Capital Housing Investments where he developed the Affordable Housing Program, one of the country’s largest direct investment programs totaling over $750 million in 250+ projects.
 
Limb serves as a board member of Koreatown Youth and Community Center, a social service agency in Los Angeles, and previously served as a board member of South Coast Chinese Cultural Association, which runs the Irvine Chinese School, the largest Chinese school in the United States.
 
Larry Agran has been committed to a healthy development of Irvine since the city’s nascent days. After graduating Harvard Law School, Agran put his specialty in public interest law into action. He served as Legal Counsel to California State Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. He also taught legislation and public policy at the UCLA School of Law and at the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine. 
 
Agran further expressed commitment to community by founding and leading a number of non-profit organizations: the Local Elected Officials Project; the Center for Innovative Diplomacy; and CityVote. He also was active in the creation of the Orange County Great Park at the former Marine Corps Base at El Toro.
 
Since 1978, Agran has served several terms on the Irvine City Council, including being elected mayor for multiple terms. Most recently he was re-elected in November 2020 for a two-year-term and recently won re-election in November 2022 for a four-year term. Agran resides in Irvine with his wife, Phyllis, who is a pediatrician.

Call it fate, kismet or destiny. Whatever it’s called, the story of how ICLT Board Member Nancy Donnelly came to be an advocate for affordable housing for adults with development disabilities in Irvine is quite a tale.
 
Let’s go back to pre-2002, when Nancy and her husband Joseph lived in Massachusetts. Nancy held several degrees in education and was focused on special education for developmentally disabled students, primarily autism. Joseph, a pediatric neurologist, also focused on developmental disabilities.
 
In 2002, they relocated to California to be close to two of their three adult children and Joseph accepted a position with UC Irvine to lead their new autism program. Naturally, Irvine was their city of choice. While the decision to settle into Irvine’s Turtle Rock Village was initially logistical, it soon began to feel more like fate. 
 
Shortly after moving in, Nancy discovered that a friend of hers from the East Coast had also moved to Irvine – in the very same month, and on the very same street. 
 
Not long after, Nancy learned of her friend’s struggles to find housing for her young-adult son with developmental disabilities and that she had joined a parents group focused on these issues. That was all Nancy had to hear and she was back in her element. The friend quickly introduced her to the group and that spiraled into her advocacy participation with several focus groups addressing this issue in Irvine.
 
Nancy also became involved in education for students with autism, helping found the New Vista School in Laguna Hills. She served as executive director for seven years and currently is on their board of directors. Around the same time, Nancy was invited to be part of the City of Irvine’s Ad Hoc Task Force to Review Housing Needs of Developmentally Disabled Adults. 
 
It is impossible to list all the organizations that have benefited from Nancy’s expertise and advocacy. But one of her most important roles came in 2006 when she was invited to be on the founding board of directors of the fledgling Irvine Community Land Trust (ICLT). She accepted and has worked diligently ever since to not only advocate for affordable housing for adults with disabilities, but for all served by ICLT. 
 
When you encounter a person as dedicated as Nancy, you often find that personal experience inspired them. In Nancy’s case, it was from her graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts. She describes it as being a “perfect storm” of timing and situation.
 
“This was a time when the special education laws in Massachusetts were being written to help students who learn differently to receive a better education. Massachusetts was very progressive – the laws it passed became a model for federal laws. 
 
“I had been a middle and high school teacher for a couple years and had seen students struggling to learn. In graduate school, my work focused on special education laws, so the timing was perfect,” Nancy explained.
 
Listening to Nancy, one is struck by her ability to get things done, while most people discuss and then discuss again. Nancy says, “You can talk something to death, but you have to figure out how the heck to get it done!”
 
Nancy’s passion for helping, her organizational skills and her refusal to give up, even when the task is daunting, set her apart from most. Though retired from a regular work routine, Nancy maintains her dedication and looks forward to continuing to help guide the Irvine Community Land Trust. She also serves on the board of Momentum, the ICLT partner that provides services to the developmentally disabled.
 
Asked what she is most proud of after serving on the ICLT board for 16 years, Nancy cites several ICLT missions:
 
First, creation of affordable housing in perpetuity – not just for seven or 30 years. Forever.  This has been much more difficult to do, and has taken much longer, because for-profit builders are not keen to do this. “It’s a long and arduous process, bringing all the parties together, and sometimes it amazes me it even happens!”
 
Second, the mission to create affordable home ownership, enabling renters to move into home ownership. “We fought hard to bring Sage Park (ICLT’s first home ownership community opened in 2021) to fruition. I love to hear Sage Park families talk about how wonderful it is to live there. And I’m proud that families with children with developmental disabilities can qualify for our homes.”
 
The third mission cited by Nancy was the decision to make Irvine’s affordable housing look the same as other Irvine housing. “We definitely did not want Irvine’s affordable housing to look different. And it doesn’t. I am proud of that.”
 
Finally, Nancy sees ICLT as a model for others across the country to emulate. 
 
“Our land trust has brought good, new thinking to land trusts.  We have an excellent relationship with the Irvine City Council. Not all land trusts have this. Very few have for-sale projects, only rentals. We have a lot of progress to showcase.”

"The HUD-VASH program is a collaborative effort among the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), community partners, and local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs). The VA Project-Based Team provides support and assistance to promote stability, housing permanence, and recovery. Our work is challenging, but with the support of our community partners, we are able to better assist formerly homeless Veterans in Orange County. Working with partners such as Irvine Community Land Trust (ICLT) has been a crucial part of our success at Salerno in Irvine, California."

- A representative from the VALB HUD VASH Team

As we prepare to bid farewell to Mark Asturias, we open our search for a new executive director.
 
Mark Asturias has announced his upcoming retirement, following nearly 20 years of service as our Executive Director. As such, we have begun a search for a new executive director. We are excited about new developments on the horizon and are eager to find a new leader to direct these efforts. 

Click here to find the job description posted on our website and through. If you or someone you know would be interested in the position, please get in touch.

Grounded Solutions Network is the national organization that represents community land trusts across America as well as other countries that have embraced this housing model. In 2019, Grounded Solutions Network launched the Catalytic Land Cohort to convene Community Land Trusts and their community partners in Atlanta, Houston, and Portland, Oregon. Together they explored strategies for investing in their communities and found that leveraging vacant and publicly owned land was one of the most valuable contributions jurisdictions can provide for creating more affordable housing, especially lasting affordable housing. 
 
Click here to read more details here and watch their video to hear first-hand what they learned and find out how communities in California can use these ideas to create permanently affordable housing with land resources they control. 

Our 2022 Annual Report is available for anyone interested in learning more about our impact and many accomplishments last year.

Click here to read it online.