Quarterly Newsletter - Q4 2020

A Season of Giving

2020 has been an especially tumultuous year, and this last quarter was no exception. While we’re still heavily involved with the leasing of Salerno and the ramp-up for development of our next project, preliminarily titled Native Spring, we took time to lighten the burdens of those living in our own communities and Irvine at large.

Through a partnership with the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the ICLT participated in three food drives in as many months, bringing much-needed aid to hundreds of families each time. We were proud to be involved in this effort, which distributed an average of 400 boxes of food per event, providing as much as 10,700 pounds of provisions in a single morning.

Earlier this quarter, the ICLT was pleased to receive a donation of face masks, which we distributed to thankful residents at our three major properties: Alegre, Parc Derian and Doria. The masks were distributed to key nonprofits throughout the city by FivePoint and the City of Irvine.

We know this year hasn’t been easy for anyone, but we believe the mark of a truly great community is having neighbors willing to help one another when the going gets rough. Irvine has proven time and again that we are, indeed, a great community, and that we truly mean it when we say “we’re all in this together."

Some of you who follow our communications closely may wonder what’s happening with Salerno and our preliminarily titled Native Spring. Currently, Salerno is undergoing its leasing process, with prospective residents being contacted according to our lottery earlier this year.

With Orange County once again falling into the “purple tier” of COVID-19 risk and similar complications arising throughout the rest of the quarter, we’ve unfortunately had to halt our plans for a traditional grand opening ceremony at Salerno. Rest assured; we still have plenty of exciting news to share, all of which will be forthcoming on our website and our social media in the coming weeks and months.

Our upcoming home ownership project draws ever closer to having a finalized name, with final determinations and approvals now underway. We look forward to christening this latest community, which is now expected to have its groundbreaking early next year.

Ryan Aeh, ICLT treasurer, joined the Board of Directors in the summer of 2019, bringing both a passion for giving back and experience in real estate that has been an insightful boon to the board.

Originally from the Midwest, Ryan’s made his debut in Irvine both living and working in the Park Place area. Since he was within walking distance of his job, he could spend the time he saved from skipping a commute by strapping on his running shoes and taking in the city: the San Diego Creek Trail, UC Irvine and all the surrounding neighborhoods. Having studied urban planning, he took great academic interest in Irvine’s legacy as a master planned community.

In time, Ryan had amassed enough experience to feel it was time to start giving back. While participating on a housing panel, he met fellow panelist ICLT Executive Director Mark Asturias and the rest is history.

As vice president of land acquisitions at Irvine-based developer City Ventures, Ryan has been involved in the development of more than 2,500 homes in Southern California over the last 15 years. His area of expertise is supply constrained markets – areas that are perceived to be “built out.” In these regions, getting new homes built isn’t a simple matter of purchasing available land, leaving many developers to build homes increasingly far from job centers.

With no land available to develop, the trick is to work closely with cities and property owners to find underutilized properties that can be converted to housing – places such as an old retail center or industrial complex adjacent to an existing community. Along the way, there are a host of challenges – concerns from neighbors over traffic, noise and privacy that need to be carefully addressed. It’s not easy work, but Ryan says it’s all worth it when he can drive past what used to be a worn-down office complex and see beautiful homes he knows have made a difference for dozens of families.

While Irvine is not quite as supply constrained as some of the other markets Ryan has seen, much of the newly developed homes skew toward higher price points, pricing out a large portion of the workforce. This makes the experience he has and the work the ICLT does to build permanently affordable housing all the more important.

Ryan noted that right now is an interesting time for affordable housing, with cities across Orange County and Southern California deep into their housing element process, which carves out plans for the next seven years. It’s a critical time when leadership and advocacy can make a big difference, and he says community land trusts will be a key part of offering innovative ways for cities to be good stewards of their resources.

“Folks are trying to go from renting to ownership or from a small apartment to something that really meets the needs of their family – that can be hard. And those are all valuable members of our community, including firefighters, police officers and nurses. So many vital members of the community struggle to be able to afford rent and get a foothold in ownership,” Ryan said. “This is an opportunity to allow those members of the community to have a home they can afford, so they’re not over extended, and allow them to thrive. I think it’s really important to have that balance, and it’s really exciting to be a part of it.”

The elections have passed, the holidays are upon us and a new year full of exciting possibilities is almost here. As much as there is to look forward to, we wanted to take brief moment to look back on what has been a particularly productive time for the ICLT.

The makeup of the ICLT’s Board of Directors will be changing next year. Some of those changes may involve ICLT Chair Melissa Fox and Board Member Farrah Khan. Melissa opted not to run for city council this year and, as a city appointee, may be stepping down if the city nominates someone new. Meanwhile, Farrah has been elected to be the mayor of Irvine and may also step down.

In advance of Melissa and Farrah possibly stepping off the board, we offer a sincere thank you to both of them for all they've done for the ICLT. Through their service and leadership, we have seen a great acceleration of our mission to provide high quality, permanently affordable housing to the City of Irvine, forming the foundation upon which many upcoming successes will be built. They have both been earnest champions of affordable housing in Irvine, and we wish them well in their respective futures in and beyond the city they've already done so much for.