» BEST
NEW HOME COMMUNITY
1. Great Park Neighborhoods
238 Merit, Irvine; 949-523-2067; greatparkneighborhoods.com All around Orange County Great Park, on land once occupied by the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, several distinct communities collectively known as Great Parks Neighborhoods are in varying stages of completion and construction. In all, the developments by FivePoint are expected to eventually include 9,500 homes by myriad homebuilders. The blend of builders and neighborhoods brings an eclectic feel to the master-planned community, with a mix of architectural influences like Spanish, farmhouse, California Monterey and modern. The shared spaces feature the parks, community pools and recreational facilities Irvine residents have come to expect while blending seamlessly into the surroundings. First to begin opening, in 2013, was Pavilion Park, with about 700 homes. Beacon Park came next with a little more than 1,000 homes, starting in 2015. Parasol Park, named for the large Parasol Pine that
JEFF GRITCHEN, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
New homes in the Great Park Neighborhood of Cadence Park in Irvine. sits in the middle of the neighborhood park, started opening in 2017 with about 725 homes. In various stages of construction and sales are homes in the Rise, Novel Park and Cadence Park
2. Rancho Mission Viejo
1 Salubre St., Rancho Mission Viejo; 949-768-1882; ranchomissionviejo.com With a 15-year plan to build a cluster of new communities on the remaining acreage of a former ranch, Rancho Mission Viejo is well on its way to meeting its ambitions near Ladera Ranch. First out of the gate was the Sendero development in 2013. The second is the village of Esencia, with five builders working on singleand multi-family homes within it. In the development’s Gavilan community, which is for those ages 55 and older, Del Webb is working
on three neighborhoods. “The Ranch also provides unique amenities for residents, including play spaces built for all ages, pools, state-of-the-art fitness centers, community farms, miles of hiking and biking trails and parks and playgrounds for kids and kids-at-heart,” said Nadine Corrigan, vice president of sales and marketing at Rancho Mission Viejo. Coming up next is the village of Rienda, with the first phase expected to go on the market in early 2022.
106 THE BEST OF ORANGE COUNTY SEPTEMBER 2020
neighborhoods. The overall Great Park Neighborhoods project had 553 sales in 2019, ranking it among the nation’s top 20 best-selling master-planned communities, according to a June 3 article in the Orange
County Register. When finished, Great Park Neighborhoods is also expected to have 138 acres of open space as well as trails that link to the Great Park itself. — Kathie Bozanich
3. IronRidge
1401 Viejo Ridge Drive, Lake Forest; 949-316-5576; liveironridge.com This master-planned community springing up in the northern reaches of Lake Forest again makes this list. In all, more than 300 single-family detached homes and 230-plus townhomes, divided into six communities, make up the development that first launched in late 2017. Landsea Homes is the homebuilder on five of the communities. Sagebluff features 65 single-family, two-story homes with three to five bedrooms next to the community park. Close to selling out is Brookha-
ven, with open floor plans featuring four to five bedrooms. The homes in the Windstone community all feature five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. All three communities’ homes are large, starting at 2,065 square feet in Sagebluff and going up to 3,814 square feet for the largest house in Windstone. The two townhome communities are Copperleaf and Silveroak. KB Homes is the developer on IronRidge’s Highmark community of two-story, single-family homes with four to five bedrooms.