



Last Updated on Friday, 07 August 2009 14:24 Written by Administrator Thursday, 07 May 2009 00:36
Ladera Ranch is an unincorporated planned community located in south Orange County, California just outside the city limits of San Juan Capistrano and Mission Viejo.
The community has several features that differentiate it from most others. For example, many traffic speed-reducing measures were put into use. Roundabouts, for example, are commonplace on smaller intersections. Narrow street widths are characteristics of Ladera Ranch's small residential streets. Landscaped street medians are common, even on two-lane collector streets like O'Neill and Sienna Parkways.
In Ladera Ranch, there are two different types of areas: villages and neighborhoods. Individual builders produce an area that is called a neighborhood. There are ten or more neighborhoods per village, and there are nine villages. Five of the nine villages have clubhouses themed on a particular architecture style that is emphasized within that village. There are also parks, pools, playgrounds and open areas within each village. Only the Covenant Hills village is a fully guard-gated closed community; the rest are open. Covenant Hills features several neighborhoods developed by high end builders and several streets of purely custom homesites with custom estate homes pricing upwards of $5 million. The residents of Ladera Ranch enjoy the various clubhouses in addition to a water park, a skate park, and miles of manicured hiking trails for runners, walkers and mountain bikers. Ladera Ranch is still not complete, but it should be by the end of 2010.
Ladera Ranch is a 4,000 acre (16 km²) master-planned community adjacent to Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano. Located along Antonio Parkway and Crown Valley Parkway, construction of the community began in 1999 on portions of the O'Neill, Avery, & Moiso family's 23,000 acre (93 km²) Rancho Mission Viejo cattle ranch, the largest remaining working ranch in Orange County. An authentic El Camino Real Bell stands in front of Chaparral Elementary School donated by the Kruse family, as a reminder of Ladera Ranch's past history.





