Irvine

City, Orange County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 92602, 92603, 92604, 92606, 92612, 92614, 92616, 92617, 92618, 92619, 92620, 92623, 92697

One of the more interesting communities in the nation. Middle-class plus, home to professionals, researchers, managers, professors and ladder-rising affluent. Many cities in California have a Trader Joe’s. A few have two. Irvine has three; it’s that kind of town. www.mccormacks.com

Irvine started off from nothing, cows and corn and oranges to a modern city. Phased development. Crops still grown on many lots until it comes time to move to housing, offices, commercial or retail.

“Master-planned” in two senses. The entire city has a plan — housing here, commercial there, stores over here, etc. As tracts are added, they come in with mini-master plans and active roles for homeowner associations. The older tracts are open; some of the newer ones are gated. And with gated comes more responsibilities for the associations.

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Intelligent, well-run, pleasant, modern-looking suburb with a touch of glitz, a movie-restaurant complex, Spectrum Center (21 screens), that would delight Hollywood or Las Vegas.

Population 209,806. Between 2000 and 2006, Irvine added almost 51,000 residents, a lot by California standards. City expects total to reach 258,000 by 2025.

In recent years, the city has been building high-rise condos and apartments on the west side, near John Wayne Airport. www.mccormacks.com

Upcoming development hot spot: the south side, around a former Marine Corps air station (El Toro). The city has taken over the base and plans to dedicate 1,347 acres for a park. The rest to go to housing, stores, commercial, a library, possibly a golf course, wild-life corridor, lake, botanical gardens, etc.

In 2007, the city was hammering out the master plan and bulldozers were leveling the buildings on the old base. If all goes well, homes at the airbase would go on sale on 2008 and the first phase of the park would open in 2009.

To reference the size of what will be called The Great Park, Central Park in New York covers 843 acres, Balboa Park, San Diego, 1,200 acres, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 1,017 acres. In other words, the Great Park is a biggie, and the land is flat and accessible, not something that would tumble a mountain goat.

In 2006, sales began on the first of 4,500 housing units to be built in five “villages” in the foothills north of the air base, near Portola Parkway. Development will cover 2,600 acres and include eight swimming pools and a 25-acre community park.

Great town for housing; lot of variety. www.mccormacks.com

The state in 2008 counted 77,680 housing units, of which 27,880 were single detached, 14,591 single attached, 34,187 multiples and 1,022 mobile homes. The 2000 census identified 60 percent of all units as owner occupied, 40 percent rentals and put about 31 percent of the residents under age 21. Family town but many singles and a growing number of empty nesters.

Homes range from middle class affluent to opulent (east of university) and if other tracts are included the choices are greater. The same people developing Irvine are also behind Newport Coast … Newport Beach … and East Orange … Orange City … thousands of homes, townhouses and apartments, all within a short drive of Irvine.

Home to a University of California campus. Most of the children are educated in Irvine Unified schools, a few in Tustin schools. Academic rankings in the 80s and often high 90s, which suggests that educational values are deeply rooted. Many activities for children.

In California, only about three dozen high schools annually crack the 600 mark in the math SAT. In 2006, all three Irvine schools made the 600 list and University High, with 656, placed seventh highest in the state.

Unusual for a college town, Irvine school district, about 25,000 students, has never won a parcel tax, which requires a two-thirds vote. This failing has forced parents to put up their own money and solicit funds to maintain program quality and electives, such as music and art, and keep class sizes low. The Irvine Public Schools Education Foundation raises about $5 million annually and has a reputation of being the most successful school association in the state. www.mccormacks.com

Donald Bren, the man who built Irvine, created and funded a foundation that for the next 10 years will pay for art, music and science in grades four to six (money donated to Irvine Public Schools Foundation). Bren has also donated to many other schools in the county.

Los Naranjos Elementary was closed in 2002. Located in one of the older neighborhoods, the school was dropping in enrollment because many parents, now in their 40s and 50s, stopped having kids. Also new school, Oak Creek, was opened and had room for Los Naranjos students.

Parts of west Irvine are served by the Tustin Unified School District. After years of delays and complaints about crowding, the Tustin district in 2004 opened Beckman High and Hicks Canyon Elementary. See Tustin.

Overall crime low. Two homicides each in 2005, 2004 and 2003, one in 2002, zero in 2001, one in 2000, two in 1999, four in 1998, one in 1997 and 1996, and for preceding years, two, one, one, three, zero, zero, two and one. See Crime.

Close to freeways and airport. Parks, activities and open space aplenty. Irvine has so many pluses that when they are listed, it’s hard to imagine anyone not wanting to live there. www.mccormacks.com

But it’s not a town for everyone. If you like the quaint, the old, the historic, if you like your cities a little messy or eccentric, Irvine may disappoint you. Residents poke fun at the sameness, joke for example that the town's colors are beige.

In the early 1800s, Mexico attempted to secure its California province by awarding large land grants to the descendants of the first colonists. These grants changed hands but remained intact until about 1960-1970.

After suburbia rolled over central and northern Orange County, developers looked south and saw these huge tracts owned by several families or firms. Also about this time, planning had become more sophisticated and planners more experienced in suburban design.

Overtures were made to the owners to bring the tracts into the market. And “master plans” were drawn up to develop this land in large chunks — a departure from previous methods.

The customary practice had been to divide large tracts into small ones, often very small ones, and sell off each tract as market conditions warranted. Developers would then submit plans that tried to blend the tract into whatever else a city or town had built. www.mccormacks.com

Often the “fit” was poorly made. Many California downtowns grew up around railroad depots. When freeways came, shoppers and traffic were pulled away from the downtowns, which then tried to pull them back. Sometimes streets built for residential traffic had to be turned into arterial boulevards. Downtown streets were often too narrow to handle heavier traffic. Old towns would have many parks, the new sections few, and so on.

With the land-grant tracts, developers and planners saw an opportunity to start with a clean slate and from the beginning lay out the town so it would function successfully as a modern community.

Irvine covers over 95,000 acres. Along with Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, Coto de Caza, Laguna Beach, Talega in San Clemente and a few other places, Irvine is “master planned.”

If you go to buy a home or condo in one of these towns, Realtors will bombard you with the term. It’s a strong selling point because it means the main roads, and park, school, civic and business sites, and trails have been laid out with the overall needs of the community in mind. For example, all arterials will usually feed right into freeway access points. The arterials collect vehicles from the residential sections; the residential streets are sheltered from “through” traffic, which makes them safer.

One master plan, however, is not the same as another master plan. Coto de Caza and Laguna Niguel were designed basically as residential communities. www.mccormacks.com

Irvine is famous because it drew up an ambitious, sophisticated plan that attempted — the town is still developing — to create a rounded, dynamic community with an intellectual and commercial foundation.

Condos, homes, apartments — in pricing and design, Irvine mixes the old with the young and the middle class with the upper-middle and rich. The town encourages businesses (about 100 major companies are headquarters in town), and has landed research facilities, office complexes, light industry — located in business parks.

And shops and stores. Many cities ignore businesses and come to regret they did. California cities fund parks, services and amenities mainly through the property tax and especially the sales tax. The more business done locally, the more sales tax revenue the city gets back.

Irvine offers an unusually rich smorgasbord of sports and community activities. Dance, cooking, golf, computers; how to invest, how to raise kids, how to get your dog to behave, how to swim, to skate, to dance, (ballet and ballroom), speak Farsi or French, how to invest, how to not come across as a slob (manners). Painting, ceramics, jewelry, singing, cardio. Activities for all groups but most for kids: swimming, soccer, golf, crafts, after school plan, summer camps. The sports-activity schedule runs to about 80 pages.

Ads in the city's recreation guide tell a lot about parental ambitions — math, science, violin, piano, SAT prepping, instruction aimed at low and high achievers, ballet. www.mccormacks.com

The presence of business people changes the dynamics of a town. In a 100-percent residential community, the political talk will focus almost solely on internal matters: street cleaning, housing plans, parks and rec.

In a rounded community, the outside world is more likely to enter, the city having to work with local businesses on a variety of issues. Businesses adopt schools. They contribute to community groups. When the Rotary or Kiwanis or other groups need speakers, local firms come through, an often mutually enriching experience. The  firms also provide local jobs — a shorter commute for many.

The University of California campus did not just happen to land in Irvine. The developer donated 1,000 acres to the state. Through its extension program, UC offers a great variety of classes to the general public (business, literature, music, computers, etc.) and, of course, there are the concerts, the plays and all those brainy, interesting people. Some volunteer their services to provide advance classes for the local school kids.

Orange County leaders call the university the heart of the “Tech Coast,” the collective effort to turn the region into a high-tech, biomedical, research and manufacturing center. Irvine also has a community college and a private college, Concordia, and a hospital.

The town ignores neither the flesh (restaurants, nightclubs, beauty salons) nor the spirit (book stores, churches and libraries). Nor the joys of exercise and the outdoors and games. Parks and trails all over the place, about 50 parks total. www.mccormacks.com

Two golf courses. Historical museum. Farmers' market. Roller hockey center. Wild Rivers water park. Lakes and ducks and fishing, boating, swimming pools, two senior centers, libraries. Barclay theater — plays, performances. Chinese Cultural Center.

The Spectrum Center includes shops popular with kids and young adults and a large movie complex. One theater boasts a six-story screen with a 3-D presentation. Shopping plazas are scattered around the town. Large amphitheater draws major acts; place seats 16,000.

Typical homes run one and two stories, two- and three-car garages. Older homes favor wood shingles, the newer tile roofs. You can buy custom homes. Neighbors differ in status and in home sizes. Many of the apartments and condos can be found near the university. No beaches but short drive to the Pacific. City was built as neighborhoods, which encourages residents to get to know one another.

Toll highway was completed in 1996, from San Juan Capistrano to Irvine-Newport Beach. Makes the commute to the South County much faster. Another toll highway to the east of the city has made commuting easier to Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Metrolink, which runs trains from Oceanside to L.A., stops at Irvine. Train station has 500 parking spaces. www.mccormacks.com

Chamber of commerce (949) 660-9112.

• Neighborhood orientation. Because the neighborhoods come with their own shops, schools, etc. many residents identify themselves according to their neighborhoods. Where do you live? I live in the xxx neighborhood ... that sort of thing. This gives some clues as to how Irvine is organized socially. If you are in your 60s and live in a neighborhood built in the 1970s, it might be assumed that you arrived as young parent, raised your kids and are now more interested in retirement recreation. Some of the first neighborhoods are seeing their school enrollments shrink. In 2004, attendance boundaries at some schools were changed to even out enrollments.

• Down on the farm. On the southeast side, much of Irvine is planting and picking.

• Although mostly flat, Irvine does have its hills and its hill tracts, many of them located east of the university.

• Kaiser is building a large medical center, to open in 2008. Facility to have 150 beds with room to add 100.

• In 2002, the Irvine Company placed 11,000 acres into open space. With this donation, about 50,000 of 93,000 acres in Irvine Ranch have been set aside for open space, parks and recreation. www.mccormacks.com

• County jail east of El Toro base. Facility may be expanded.

• Tree city. If your town plants loads of trees it will win the thanks of the National Arbor Day Foundation. In 2000, Irvine was named a “Tree City.”

• Standard equipment for strollers and joggers: a water bottle.

• School district runs an annual science fair. Latin taught at some schools.

• Another popular language for the schools: Chinese. Not only is it taught in the schools but the private sector, notably the Irvine Chinese School, located in the South Coast Chinese Cultural Center, offers instruction. The U.S. government is funding the program at the school.

• Irvine District forbids high-school students, seniors excepted, to leave the campus during the school day — an effort to keep them out of harm. www.mccormacks.com

• Expanded hours for local libraries; open Sundays.

• In 2006, UC Irvine enrolled 25,000 students and expects to hit 26,000 by 2010. The campus has a faculty of 1,800 and a staff of 10,000 and by its own estimation enriches the county by $3.7 billion annually.

Construction is almost continuous at the university, which is, important to note, a research institution. Most universities are not. Among UC Irvine’s specialties: stem cells and dengue fever. University counts three Nobel winners.

• What do you call a UC Irvine student? An anteater, after the school's mascot. At sports events, you cheer the team on by chanting, “Zot, Zot, Zot.”

• In and near the Spectrum Center are acres and acres of business parks with thousands of office, high-tech and bio-tech jobs. www.mccormacks.com

• Cal State University at Fullerton operates a large branch campus in Irvine — 3,000 students, classes aimed at juniors and seniors, 30 majors.

• Irvine in 2007 opened its first Home Depot. Giant store, 104,000 square feet.

• Parcel tax up to $79 per year to pay for lights, landscaping, park upkeep.

• Lionized. Irvine Civic Center is located about three miles from the Pacific Ocean but near the center flows a narrow creek-channel that connects to Upper Newport Bay. In 2006, for reasons undetermined, a sea lion weighing 285 pounds made its way up the creek and got within 300 feet of the center. Volunteers from Pacific Marine Mammal Center netted the lion and returned him to the ocean.

• Boola-Boola. University reports that fraternities and sororities are making a comeback — 1,700 students, about 9 percent of all undergrads. www.mccormacks.com

• If you aspire for paradise, look no further. Irvine’s official motto is: “Another Day in Paradise.”

• No smoking in the parks of paradise. Ordinance passed in 2007.

• Opening in 2008: Outdoor Education Center — day and overnight camps, pool, trails, archery and BB gun ranges, tribal village, astronomy and ranch camps. On 200 acres of public park. Programs to be run by Boy Scouts. Goal is to get kids active and outdoors.

• Opening in 2007. Performing Arts Center at Irvine Community College. Many students who participate in school plays find jobs in Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. The college is also building a sciences and technology innovation center to open in 2008.

• Concordia, a Lutheran liberal arts university, is located in Irvine. In 2007, it opened a business and technology center. www.mccormacks.com

• Annual fundraiser — win a home or townhouse. Schools foundation sells 20,000 tickets priced at $200 each. Prize for 2007, a new townhouse valued at $600,000. If winner prefers cash … $500,000.

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