Larry Agran
Candidate for Mayor, Irvine · Mayor of Irvine
Larry Agran grew up in Southern California and attended UCLA and UC Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in economics and U.S. history, before completing Harvard Law School in 1969 with a focus on public interest law. He served as chief legal counsel for the California State Senate Health & Welfare Committee before moving to Irvine in 1973, where he and his wife Phyllis have lived since 1976; they have one son, Kenneth, and two grandchildren. Agran was first elected to the Irvine City Council in 1978 and became the city's first directly elected mayor, championing growth-control policies and the preservation of more than 10,000 acres of open space; during that period he authored Orange County's first Human Rights Ordinance and the nation's first municipal ordinance banning ozone-depleting chemicals, and helped defeat plans for an international airport at the former El Toro Marine base. After an eight-year absence, he returned to the council and mayor's office from 1998 to 2004, focusing on police-force diversity and living-wage standards. He was elected to the council again in 2020, when he advocated for closing an industrial polluter and authored a 2024 ballot measure on neighborhood representation, and was elected mayor in 2024. As mayor he has championed an Urban Forest Master Plan, expanded transit service, and pushed for amenities at the city's Great Park as Vice Chair of the Great Park Board. Under his tenure Irvine was ranked in 2026 as the nation's safest city, its fourth-greenest city, and third-best city for families.
Positions in brief
Agran's platform centers on opposing overdevelopment and warehouse expansion, holding the Orange County Power Authority accountable for financial mismanagement, and advancing environmental initiatives such as the city's Urban Forest Master Plan.
Agran has made 'careful planning' central to his platform, pointing to his record of supporting restrictions on warehouses and large-scale development in Irvine. He has been a leading critic of the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA), the regional public power agency Irvine helped create, saying multiple investigations found 'gross mismanagement, deception, and financial instability' at the agency and objecting to residents and businesses being enrolled in its electricity plan without a public vote. As Vice Chair of the Great Park Board, he has pushed to add resident-requested amenities to the Great Park, and he says that as mayor he will continue Irvine's environmental programs, including its Urban Forest Master Plan, through thoughtful planning and citizen involvement.
On the issues
Supports strict limits on warehouse development and overdevelopment in Irvine.
“He has a proven record of supporting careful planning and placing strong restrictions on warehouses and overdevelopment.”
Source →Opposes forced enrollment in the Orange County Power Authority's electricity plan and wants greater accountability for the agency's finances.
“Forcing every Irvine resident and business into a new, more expensive electricity plan without a vote of the people is flat-out wrong!”
Source →Supports continuing Irvine's environmental programs, including its Urban Forest Master Plan and open-space preservation.
“As Irvine's Mayor, Larry will make sure that our City continues to be a beacon of environmental stewardship through thoughtful planning and citizen involvement.”
Source →
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