Fullerton

City, Orange County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 92831, 92832, 92833, 92834, 92835, 92836, 92837, 92838

Bedroom-college town, population 137,437, mix of old and new, well-cared-for, even in older sections. Home to a California State University and a community college. Rejuvenated downtown. www.mccormacks.com

Recently demolished a giant aircraft plant and replaced it with homes, stores and offices, one of largest town projects in decades.

The 2000 census placed 30 percent of the town under age 21. Median age of residents was 33. Translation: many parents in 30s, fair number of kids. Family town.

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School rankings from teens to 90th percentile, many about the middle. Commonwealth Avenue divides the city, socially and by scores. Schools south of Commonwealth score in low to middle ranges; north of Commonwealth in the 70th to 90th percentile. See Schools.

Children attend elementary schools in the Fullerton Elementary District, then move up to Fullerton High School District, which takes in parts of Buena Park and La Habra.

In 2002, both Fullerton Elementary and the Fullerton High districts passed bonds, $50 million for the first, $68 million for the high schools. Shows good support for schools.

Every year about two dozen California high schools crack 600 mark in the math SAT. In 2006, Troy High hit 665 and Sunny Hills High 600. Troy often comes in first or second in the National Science Bowl (tough competition). www.mccormacks.com

A small part of Fullerton on its east is within the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district. Check to find out which school your child will attend.

Zero homicides in 2005, one in 2004, five in 2003, one in 2002, three each in 2001 and 2000. For preceding years, four, two, two, five, six, six, two, four, three, six, eight and six. Fullerton has its police department. See Crime.

The state in 2008 counted 47,044 housing units: 23,954 single detached, 3,862 single attached, 18,307 multiples and 921 mobiles. Census identified 54 percent of units as owner occupied, 46 rented.

Two freeways and a fairly good base of local jobs, which helps the commute. Metrolink station. Small airport to west. Some residents want planes to stop flying over their houses. In 2006, plane approaching Fullerton crashed in Buena Park; pilot and passenger injured.

Fullerton started the 1940s with about 10,000 residents, added a few thousand in the war years, then exploded in the 1950s and 1960s, reaching a population of 85,826 by 1970. In the 1970s, it added 16,500 residents, in the next decade 12,000 and in the last decade 8,900. Between 2000 and 2006, the town took on another 10,425 residents, many of them from the housing built on the demolished plant. www.mccormacks.com

In 2007, Fullerton was debating how to develop 510 acres in its northwest hills — the last large empty parcel in the city. Owner is pushing for 760 homes and a design that would place 280 acres in open space. Many arguments over the proposal.

Housing across the spectrum, the neighborhoods built to the styles and sizes of their eras. The southern part of the city was developed first and in these sections the homes will have two or three bedrooms. As you move north toward the hills, the homes get bigger and newer, and two neighborhoods are built around golf courses.

Fullerton generally looks well maintained. In newer, upscale neighborhoods this is almost a given. But Fullerton in its older sections also comes across as presentable. Garages may be small and separate from the homes, utility lines overhead and running along alleys, streets laid out on the grid pattern, the old way. But the lawns are mowed and the houses painted. Many of the older streets are lined with trees, adding greatly to their appearance.

The upscale tends to two-story tract but there is variety. Ranchettes and horse trails can be found near Laguna Lake. The San Juan neighborhood tends to older single homes, ranchers, high level of care. Drive Rosecrans Avenue for the newer tract designs. Many homes were built just west of the university. Designs here run to the 1950s and 1960s. Mature trees, lawns mowed, bushes trimmed. The university has dorms and the immediate streets cater to the college crowd: pizza parlors, sandwich shops.

Fullerton and private parties have spent about $20 million to revive the downtown. About 40 restaurants. Sidewalk or patio dining. Streets spruced up, buildings restored, parking added, antique shops and a city museum opened. Main library expanded to give the kids' section more room. On nearby streets, the city allowed in more apartments, which helps the stores. Buses. Amtrak Station. www.mccormacks.com

The community college and the university are big pluses. They offer classes not only for their traditional students (high school grads) but also for the public. The instructors, professors and administrators, if only through their teaching, often influence town ways.

Fullerton has the Southern California College of Optometry, the third-oldest optometric college in U.S. Fullerton has a civic light opera and a symphony orchestra. It’s hard for a town to pull these off unless it has good base of cultured support.

As for the low academic scores in some sections, the demographics are changing here. Because of the college and the university, Fullerton may be able to do a better job of absorbing these changes.

Two libraries, 46 parks, youth science center, two museums, an arboretum, art galleries, hiking and horse trails. Boys and Girls Club. Movies. Lake stocked with trout. Baseball, soccer, football, golf (including a golf training center), activities and recreation classes for all ages.

“A Night in Fullerton” celebrates arts with plays, music and song. Annual Railroad Days draws 40,000 train buffs. www.mccormacks.com

Chamber of Commerce (714) 871-3100.

• Amerige Heights: 1,250 homes, stores and offices — what went up at the aircraft plant, 293 acres at Gilbert Street and Malvern Avenue. Target, Barnes and Noble bookstore, giant supermarket, Trader Joe's.

• Fullerton is trying to save and restore an old movie house, the Fox, in the downtown. Long-term job. Fox would be used for films, plays and concerts.

• In 2005, at a cost of $55,000, Fullerton erected nine antennas around downtown and created a wi-fi zone free to public.

• Among classes offered at Sunny Hills High, Mandarin. School officials report good response.

• Bowling used to be one of most popular sports in the country but several decades ago interest fell off sharply. Now it is making a comeback, especially among high school kids. Sunny Hills High is one of eight high schools in the county that offer bowling as an elective or phy ed class. www.mccormacks.com

• Airport is adding hangars and bringing in more helicopters and jets. If you follow airport noise battles, jets would seem to be the very thing to arouse neighborhood opposition. But the next generation of jets — the so-called light jets — supposedly put out little noise.

• Cal State Fullerton, which has a branch campus in Irvine, enrolls 35,040 students. University officials looked at the numbers in 2006 realized, hey, we’re number one, among Cal States.

• More students need more housing. The state university has 820 dorm units on campus and a waiting list of 1,400. In planning, another dorm with rooms for 1,200; may open by 2010. Private developer wants to build 450 apartments near the university.

• In 2006, the university opened a performing arts center.

• Fullerton employs two people full time to remove graffiti. The belief is that fast removal discourages some of the g. artists. www.mccormacks.com

• Fullerton Metrolink station, the busiest in the county, draws about 1,300 rail commuters. Amtrak routes 22 trains to the station. City officials have hired a consultant to draw up a plan for shops and restaurants around the station.

Trains mean noise — gate bells, horns and rumblings. About 90 freight trains pass through the town every day. Some people love the noise of trains, some don’t.

• Amanda Pratt, driving her Ford Escort in 2006, was broadsided by another vehicle that pushed her car onto the tracks. Freight train coming down. She didn’t see it. Man came to window and yelled, get out. She pushed on door, he pulled; door stuck. Other man ran around to passenger door, opened it, and with help of first fellow pulled Amanda over the console and out of car. Just as they got clear, train hit front of car.

City web site: www.ci.fullerton.ca.us