City, Orange County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 92780, 92781, 92782
Middle to
upper middle town that is undergoing a second building boom. The population,
74,218, is expected to hit 103,000 within 10 years. If you are shopping for new
homes, look here. www.mccormacks.com
Located between
Santa Ana and Irvine and in possession of a former Marine Corps helicopter
station, 1,600 acres. After years of haggling over how the base should be
divided, an agreement was reached in 2002.
Plans call
for 4,600 homes and apartments, a homeless shelter, a college campus (emphasis
technology), a library, parks, offices and stores, a sports park with soccer
and ball fields, trails and a music pavilion.
Click for regional or detailed map
No
airfield (but check out noise from John Wayne Airport to west.) Pentagon
retained 238 acres to sell to a residential developer.
Demolition
and construction on the base started slowly in 2004 and stepped up in 2005 and
2006. Some small tracts started selling in 2006. A 111-acre shopping center is
scheduled to open in 2007. The college campus is erecting its initial buildings
and plans to start classes in fall 2007. Also opening in 2007, the homeless
shelter.
Almost all
the housing is coming in as master-planned “villages” that mix shops,
restaurants, parks and schools and entertainment, in the form of movies and a
performance stage. The overall design encourages people to get around by foot,
not car. Linear park to encircle the villages. www.mccormacks.com
The town
is served by Tustin Unified School District, which also takes in part of
Irvine. In state comparisons, almost all schools are scoring above the 50th
percentile, some in the 90th percentile. District also serves unincorporated
areas so it’s hard to break out neighborhood scores. See Schools.
Tustin district has one magnet school,
Tustin Memorial Academy. It offers a program that stresses fundamentals and an accelerated program for gifted kids.
Two
elementaries were opened in 2001 but crowding remained a problem. In 2004,
relief came with the opening of Hicks Canyon Elementary and Beckman High
School. In 2003, local voters passed an $80 million bond to renovate the older
schools. Work began in 2004 and is expected to take a few years.
Two homicides in 2005, one each in 2004,
2003 and 2002, zero in 2001, one in 2000, two in 1999, zero in 1998, three in
1997 and 1996 and 1995 and for preceding years, one, two, one, four, six, and
one. Tustin runs its own police department. Shakeup in 2006: more office jobs
to civilians, more cops to patrol, special unit created to deal with
high-priority tasks. See Crime.
The state
in 2008 counted 25,994 housing units, of which 8,888 were single detached,
4,133 single attached, 12,065 multiples and 908 mobile homes. The 2000 census
found that about 50 percent of the city's housing units were owner occupied,
about 50 percent rentals. Median
age of residents is 32. Those under age 21 make up about 30 percent of the
population. www.mccormacks.com
The 2000
census disclosed that 50 percent of all housing units in Tustin were built
between 1960 and 1980 and 40 percent between 1980 and 2000. A lot of the new and the fairly new and
with the continued construction, the town will take on a more modern look.
Well
maintained, three- and four- bedroom homes, one and two stories. On many
streets, the shrubs and trees have had time to fill out. The Centennial Park
subdivision has some of the tallest pine trees in the county. Utility lines
buried. Walls around the tracts to dampen noise and channel traffic away from
residential streets.
Pleasant
and attractive because the homes show a lot of care. Some lawns approach
putting-green quality.
Tustin
comes across paradoxically as both fragmented and cohesive. Interstate 5 plows
through the center of town, forcing many streets into dead ends or cul-de-sacs.
Highway 55 isolates a small section. One new neighborhood, off Tustin Ranch
Road, seems stuck off by itself, hemmed in by Cowan Heights and
Irvine. The new subdivisions are so strikingly new that they make the
not-much-older tracts seem dated. Trains interrupt traffic on a few streets.
On the
cohesive side, Tustin has an “old town” that gives the feeling of a genuine “community”
heart. The residential section of Tustin is not that big; all neighborhoods are
within a few minutes drive of the downtown and each other. www.mccormacks.com
Highway
55, with the exception of that one neighborhood, serves as a strong boundary to
Santa Ana. On the northeast side, the new homes and townhouses move out into
the country.
Tustin
Ranch, built in the 1990s, is master planned and governed in part by a
homeowner's association, which keeps up appearances.
The older
homes tend to stucco of mixed colors and often composite or shingle roofs.
Reflecting the popular styles of today, the new homes and townhouses favor
sandy stucco and terra cotta roofs. Many new homes are two-story. The older
homes have larger lots than the new ones; the latter tend to fill their lots.
In the streets off the old town, many of the homes have been remodeled or
touched up.
Many of
the homes going up now place the garage to the rear, out of sight from the
street.
Boys and
Girls Club. YMCA runs programs for kids after school. Usual activities and
sports for kids and adults. Library. Museum. Seniors center. Golf course.
Driving range. About a dozen parks, including a sports park with softball and
soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts, playground. Close to Irvine and
its offerings, including classes at University of California. Local hospital.
Short drive to ocean. Santa Ana Mountains in background. Many trails, some for
horses. www.mccormacks.com
Small
shops in old town. Brick crosswalks. Main Street lined with trees. Auto mall,
which helps generate sales taxes for city coffers. Discount mall includes a
Costco, Home Depot, Best Buy, movies, restaurants. Theaters, other amusements,
many restaurants located nearby. Whole Foods is building a large store in the
new center, a replacement for its current store in Tustin. Also entering the
mall, an In-N-Out Burger. To cover all food groups, Tustin also has a Trader
Joe’s.
Many local
jobs. Not only at John Wayne Airport but also in the industrial section in south
Tustin and in nearby Santa Ana and Irvine.
Commuter
rail to L.A., San Diego, Riverside and to other parts of Orange County; station
in town. Two freeways. Toll highway (261) on the east side. All in all, not a
bad commute for many residents.
When
office complexes are built on the Marine base, they might yield over 20,000
jobs. This would ease the commute for many residents.
Chamber of
commerce (714) 544-5341.
• Two
blimp hangars at former Marine base. One will be turned into park-museum, the
other probably will be demolished but some are fighting to save it. www.mccormacks.com
• Orchard
Hills, 2,500 unit development, is going up in Irvine but within the boundaries
of the Tustin school district. The district, through homeowner fees and money
from the state and the developer, is securing funds to build a school for the
project.
• In 2005,
the Tustin district and the City of Irvine worked out a schedule for Beckman
High School, which is located next to an Irvine park. During the day, the
school belongs to the kids; during the evening, the school shares its pool, gym
and playing fields with the community.
• Foothill
High School, built in 1963, is being overhauled and adding or replacing
buildings — science-computer, aquatics, gym-multipurpose.
• Tustin
High School has a chamber orchestra, 35 players, all strings. In 2005, the
group was invited to play at Carnegie Hall in New York City, a great honor. The
community raised $66,000 to fund the trip and buy the students better violins.
• Stickup
at Home Depot in 2007. Employee shot to death. Left wife and twin daughters,
age 3. www.mccormacks.com
• Irvine
Valley Community College to offer college classes for students at local high
schools. Agreement reached in 2007. First Beckman High, fall 2007, then Tustin
and Foothill.
• Junk
food out at schools. Candy and sodas machines already gone, fatty foods getting
eased out, portions reduced, healthy foods getting a boost. Will it work? For
some kids, probably yes. For others, let’s discuss this at In-N-Out Burger (see
previous.)
• Irvine is
building apartments and condos in its industrial park near John Wayne Airport.
Newport Beach and Tustin are afraid that the traffic from this housing will
wind up on their streets and the residents in their parks. They want a
comprehensive plan for the area. See you in court.
• A city
that likes trees — about 17,000 in all.
• If short
of money and want to buy in Tustin, some of the new housing is subsidized to be
“affordable” for those with low and middle incomes. Check with city hall or
developer. www.mccormacks.com
City web
site: www.tustinca.org
