Larry Agran

Lawrence Alan "Larry" Agran (born February 2, 1945) is a former mayor and city councilman of Irvine, California.

Early life

Agran was born in Chicago, the son of Selma and Reuben Agran. He was raised in a "politically liberal Jewish household". Agran graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in both history and economics. He then earned a Juris Doctor (with honors) from Harvard Law School in 1969, specializing in public interest law.

Agran served as Legal Counsel to the California State Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, and taught legislation and public policy at the UCLA School of Law and the University of California, Irvine Graduate School of Management.

City government

Between 1979 and 1990, he served on the city council, including 6 years as Mayor (Irvine employs a council-manager government).

Larry Agran rejoined the Irvine City Council and has, for many years, served as a city councilman; he chaired the City’s Great Park board until February 2011. (The board is charged with planning, constructing and operating a new park of nearly 1,500 acres (6.1 km²) at the former Marine Corps Air Base El Toro in Irvine.) The fully funded, nearly $70 million Great Park Western Sector Park Development plan is in its first phase, and the North Lawn multi-use area is expected to open to the public in spring 2011. Construction was about to begin in early 2011 on an arts and culture area, to be followed by construction of three lighted soccer fields. A leased agricultural area of 114 acres (0.46 km²) produced its first crop of strawberries and the newly opened Great Park Carousel had more than 25,000 riders in the first two months of 2011.