FOCUS

Resort Living on the Links

With a name like Big Canyon you would expect to see some sort of narrow chasm with precipitous walls and water flowing through the middle, right?

Welllll, not exactly.

The heart of the Big Canyon neighborhood is a sprawling 390-acre, lush residential complex and country club. Bounded by four major arterial streets--Ford and San Joaquin Hills roads on the north and south and MacArthur Boulevard and Jamboree Road on the east and west--this “fortress” of foliage and fairways lies immediately north of the Newport Center Financial Plaza, one of Orange County’s principal commercial and financial centers.

The major open space and recreational amenity is the Big Canyon golf course. Lakes, creeks and ponds run throughout the 145-acre layout. With the Big Canyon Country Club acting as the focal point of the complex, the Irvine Co. created a serene, resort-like homestead.

The club opened in April, 1972, and 2 years later its 500 stockholders bought the entire operation from the Irvine Co. Today, there are 400 non-equity members besides the 500 stockholders who operate the club. Professional golfer Shirley Little is an honorary member. She does most of her practicing on the blue-green grassy turf of the club.

Built around and throughout the golf course are 500 homes--225 of them townhouses perched on the outer perimeter. Single-family homes are situated nearer the middle. As befits an ambiance dominated by a country club, many of the neighborhood’s streets are named for famous links--Burning Tree Circle, Winged Foot Lane, Augusta Road, Cypress Point and Inverness and Oakmont lanes, just to name a few.

Home prices reflect what has happened elsewhere in the county. When units went on sale in Big Canyon in 1972, houses started at $75,000, condominiums around $65,000. Today, prices for the average four- or five-bedroom home with three-car garage begin around $800,000, or $500,000 for a townhouse.

Danny Bibb, a Grubb & Ellis real estate agent who has been a resident since 1980 and has sold 100 houses in the neighborhood, describes his customers this way: “Three-fourth of the buyers have families and most are in the 35- to 55-age group. The majority of homeowners never leave the immediate area--they might buy another home smaller or larger, but they usually don’t leave.”

They are also among Orange County’s most affluent residents. Big Canyon is the third-richest neighborhood in the county, with a median household income exceeding $100,000 per year.

Big Canyon can also accommodate those who prefer to rent. At the intersection of Ford Road and MacArthur Boulevard are the Big Canyon Villas, not to be confused with the gate-guarded estates a block away. Seventy-

eight townhouses are for rent only and range from $2,175 to $3,250 monthly.

Most residents in Newport Beach seem to put great emphasis on the harbor area, but not Big Canyon residents. They opt for grass, shrubs, trees, flowers and, of course, golf.

Population Total: (1988 est.) 3,908 1980-88 change: +30% Median Age: 45.3 Racial/ethnic mix: White (non-Latino), 94%; Latino, 3%; Black, less than 1%; Other, 3% By sex and age: MALES Median age: 44.6 years FEMALES Median age: 45.7 years Income Per capita: $53,732 Median household: $111,792 Average household: $146,686 Income Distribution: Less than $25,000: 8% $25,000-49,999: 10% $50,000-74,999: 16% More than $75,000: 66%