The Irvine City Council will call a special meeting at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, November 5 to discuss its recent approval of $20 million to purchase property on Armstrong Avenue for a new homeless shelter.

The deal is not finalized, but is expected to close Tuesday, City Manager Oliver Chi said Monday.

The board approved the purchase of two adjacent lots, 17572 and 17622 Armstrong Avenue, for the shelter at its last meeting on Oct. 22.

At that time, City Council member Mike Carroll was the lone vote against the purchase, expressing concern about greenlighting a real estate transaction of this magnitude without the plan going before a city commission and without additional opportunities to residents and business owners of the Irvine shopping complex to comment. .

Now Mayor Farrah Khan appears to be having second thoughts.

Khan called a Tuesday meeting in a memo dated Nov. 4 in which she expressed concerns to Chi about the lack of community outreach and the scale of the purchase she already voted for.

“We noted that outreach efforts had not been done prior to the board’s decision to purchase 17572 and 17622 Armstrong Avenue,” she wrote. “Since the council’s action, I understand that petitions have been signed, meetings have been held and various representations have been made.”

Khan did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment on the new information brought to his attention.

Chan Tran, a resident of the Irvine shopping complex, said his condominium association, which represents people living in three complexes near the proposed shelter, raised concerns with the city about the lack of community input .

Since Oct. 22, he said his HOA has met with city officials, including Chi and Irvine Police Chief Michael Kent, and over the past few days, more than 100 residents of the shopping complex of Irvine had signed a petition to express their dissatisfaction with the level of contribution. they have had so far on the project.

“We have a growing community of young parents and families here,” Tran said. “We’re just trying to draw attention to the changing demographics. We just want transparency.

At the Oct. 22 meeting, city staff made it clear to council that they would be voting on an item that had not gone through city committees or the usual planning and community outreach process.

“There is an opportunity to acquire property,” Chi told the council Oct. 22. “We have a small window in which we must commit to the transaction before the end of the month if we are to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Only Carroll has disputed this claim.

“As far as the sense of urgency felt by the staff, I don’t really believe it because we are well capitalized and we can potentially find other locations if we lose this property somehow. another one,” Carroll said before the Oct. 22 conference. vote. “But the idea that we’re going to spend $20 million on a vote at 8:45 p.m. with no one in the room except a few public speakers concerns me.”