[7] Agran graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree in both history and economics.

Agran in 1965, together with Peter and Nacy Madian, lobbied the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to run a holiday bus service between UC Berkeley and San Francisco International Airport, but were denied.

[12] Larry Agran won the most votes again in the regular municipal election on June 8, 1982,[12] and first served as mayor of Irvine in 1982, continuing through 1984, with a second term starting in 1986.

In 1983, then-Mayor Agran established the Local Elected Officials of America (LEO-USA) project, which founded what became a network of over 250 U.S. local officials advocating for municipal priorities that had an international scope, including the end of the arms race, reduction in U.S. defense spending, and the prioritizing of increased federal spending in economically disadvantaged American cities.

In 2019, Agran worked with University of California, Irvine doctoral student Ben Leffel to chronicle the role Irvine had to play in establishing CID/LEO-USA its municipal foreign policy network, using original issues of the Bulletin, with articles largely written by the Center's expansive network.

"[15] In September 2020, Larry Agran was recognized by ICLEI as playing a crucial role in founding the international organization that now includes over 1,750 cities, towns, and counties in 84 countries:[16] Indeed, the stirrings of a city-led sustainability network can be traced in part to City of Irvine, CA, where, in summer 1989, then-Mayor Larry Agran ushered a first-of-its-kind local ordinance restricting the use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

By July, a two-day conference in Irvine convened 24 U.S. and Canadian cities to explore how local governments could combat the depletion of the ozone layer.

[18] As Mayor in 1988, Larry Agran led the Irvine City Council to establish the first human rights ordinance of its kind[vague] in Orange County, prohibiting discrimination on basis of "race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, physical handicap," as well as sexual orientation.

[21] Agran, Rowland and Molina, championed what was described as one of "the most far reaching measures" in banning commercial process and consumer product use of CFCs.

[22] The ordinance is recognized as jumpstarting municipal, state, national, and international efforts to craft legislation that banned CFCs.

[24] He proposed removing all United States troops from Western Europe and Japan and redirecting 150 billion dollars as a "peace dividend" (1992 value) to local cities and towns for local services such as "public health clinics, libraries, police forces, and transportation", a national health program, and environmental protections.

(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.)

[31] Agran supervised removal and clean-up of decades of toxic contamination and building of many of the Great Park's iconic features, including the Great Park Balloon and Carousel, the Palm Court and Arts Complex, the Farm + Food Lab, the South Lawn Soccer Complex, the huge North Lawn (the largest uninterrupted lawn in Southern California), and restoration and repurposing of historic World War II airplane hangars.

Under Agran's leadership, the Great Park also began hosting popular events, including Cirque du Soleil,[32] concerts, movies, air shows, regular farmers markets, and countless other community events, boosting attendance at the Great Park to nearly one million annual visitors.

[33] Under Agran's tenure, the City of Irvine and the Orange County Great Park also won a national U.S. Department of Energy competition to be the host venue for two U.S.

Political opponents of Agran — including newly-elected Mayor Steven Choi and Councilmembers Christina Shea and Jeff Lalloway — won a 3-2 majority on the City Council, and called for another audit of Great Park expenditures.

In January 2014, HSNO issued a preliminary public report declaring that $38 million in Great Park funds were "missing."

[37] In 2014, Irvine voters had approved a rule to its city charter such that councilmembers and the mayors can serve no more than two full 2 year terms for life.

[43] In April 2017, the Irvine City Council, on a split 3-2 vote, introduced a land-swap alternative with developer Five Point, trading the park-side ARDA site with a similarly sized location near Interstate 405.

[45] After the Irvine City Council entered the land swap agreement on October 10, 2017, Irvine residents started a petition referendum campaign to halt the zoning ordinance change that was requisite for the land swap, submitting 19,140 signatures gathered within 30 days, which put the zoning change on the June 2018 ballot.