Our community needs healthy choices for daily living near where we work and live.
Members of the University community and residents of Irvine are aware that plans have been made by the Irvine Company to replace a long established fitness center with a Target Express. The University of California and its students have been researching in many areas such as the Global Food Initiative, diabetes, and sustainability, to name a few. It is well established that people should limit their intake of processed food and have exercise as a daily part of a healthy life. Replacing a fitness facility with another processed food emporium runs counter to our values as a world leader in education and research. We like to envision our neighborhood as a living lab and hope that our retail neighbors respect and ideally share these values.
Traffic impact studies (Irvine Business Complex Five-Year Traffic Study Update) of the surrounding roads indicate the traffic is already impacted in 2015. The City of Irvine has experienced a 20% increase in population in the past five years. The University will be adding more students and faculty.We are very concerned that a department store will only add to the street traffic impact as people come from adjacent areas such as Newport Beach.
Fitness opportunities prevent obesity, minimize stress, and should be readily available to all residents in densely populated areas. This was part of the original plan and research has shown that exercise is a critical part of daily life. Please reconsider this decision. It is our preference to keep the fitness center, not add a Target Express..
