South County Workers Stick Close to Home : Weary Commuters Moving Nearer to Their Workplaces
When Control Components Inc. moved to the Rancho Santa Margarita business park in early 1987, its workers lived all over Orange County.
Today, most employees of the specialized valve manufacturing plant live in South Orange County. An impressive 22 of them--12.5% of the work force--live in Rancho Santa Margarita.
The company has hired a few people who already were residents of the relatively new planned community since moving there from Irvine, said Jeanie Villava, manager of human resources.
But most of the Rancho Santa Margarita residents who work for Control Components worked there before the company relocated and bought in the planned community to be closer to their jobs.
It is a sign, said a spokeswoman for the county’s newest planned community, that Rancho Santa Margarita is fulfilling its goal of becoming an urban core, a residential and job center for the South County.
It also is a sign that putting both homes and businesses in planned communities--a concept that began in Orange County with the development of Irvine more than two decades ago--is working.
Ultimately, urban planners say, that juxtaposition of homes and jobs should help relieve traffic congestion both as businesses hire new and replacement workers from the immediate area and as commute-weary employees move closer to their jobs.
A Times Orange County Poll of 800 county residents shows that already, 72% of all working South County residents have jobs within the South County.
The poll, conducted by telephone between June 28 and July 1, surveyed 400 North County residents and 400 South County residents, using the Costa Mesa Freeway as the dividing line.
Considering the jammed San Diego and Santa Ana freeways feeding into Irvine and Costa Mesa from the south, it seems surprising at first glance that so many South County residents say they also work in the south.
The Times survey showed that 70% of North County residents work within their region.
“But you have to remember that you can live in San Juan Capistrano and work in Irvine and commute 40 miles a day and still live and work in the South County,” said Robert Slayton, an associate professor of history and urban development specialist at Chapman College in Orange.
The same holds true in North Orange County, where a commute from La Habra to Costa Mesa covers more than 20 miles and can take the better part of an hour.
Still, said Slayton, “the big push (in planning) today is to get people to work closer to home, and . . . it looks like we have achieved some of that shorter commute.”
And because most of the county’s remaining raw land is in the South County, most of its new homes and businesses will be there too. That means the percentage of South County residents who work close to home will grow considerably larger in coming years, planning experts say.
‘Jobs Following People’
A study by the Santa Margarita Co. earlier this year showed that of approximately 3,000 people working within Rancho Santa Margarita, 75% either lived in the 3-year-old community or lived in surrounding communities and commuted less than 10 miles to get to their jobs.
And in Irvine, the county’s first entirely master-planned community, a recent study by the Irvine Co. showed that nearly 70% of the residents with jobs worked within the city, according to Dick Sim, president of the Irvine Co.’s Investment Properties Group.
That compares to “an infinitesimal number” who lived and worked in Irvine when the community was new, Sim said.
“In a sense, it is a case of the jobs following people, but it also is a case of the South County being the only game in town,” said Robert Dunham, president of the Newport Economic Group, a commercial real estate consulting firm in Newport Beach.
“The South County is where all the vacant land is, so that is where the growth will be, and that is where people will have to go for homes and where businesses will go, both for space and because that is where the pool of workers will be, “ he said.
Robert W. Abel, a certified public accountant in Irvine, knows well what Dunham is talking about.
When he opened his one-man office two years ago, he thought of Irvine as a good, central location that would keep him close to his clientele, which was split between the central and “upper south” parts of the county.
‘Businesses Going South’
Now, Abel said, “I am drawing clients from farther and farther south, mostly small businesses and professional people. I see a general movement of businesses going south.”
Since 1981, Orange County has been a net importer of workers--meaning there are more jobs in the county than people to fill them.
Although most jobs still are in the North County, “the gap is closing” and there will be a lot of job movement south during the next three years, said Dennis W. Macheski, vice president and research director for the Pacific Southwest region of Grubb & Ellis Commerical Real Estate Services in Irvine.
Those jobs will probably involve relatively few manufacturing firms--a countywide phenomenon brought about by the high cost of land, high population densities and high cost of housing. Many of the companies making the move south will be electronic and medical technology firms, Macheski said.
Workers in the south, he said, tend to be “particularly well-educated” because they hold the skilled jobs necessary to earn the incomes needed to purchase housing there. Those high levels of education are what high-technology firms are looking for.
Able, the Irvine CPA and a Coto de Caza resident, suggests that the high cost of South County housing also has become a factor in the generation of businesses and jobs.
“A lot of high-income, executive decision makers are migrating south for the life style, and then are making the decision to place their businesses closer to their homes,” he said.
That is why ABC Fire Protection is in South Orange County, said office manager Katie Willett. The 17-employee business was started in El Toro about six years ago and moved to Laguna Hills in early 1987.
‘Mom and Pop’ Operations
“Our customer base is all over Southern California,” she said, “and our employees live all over Orange County. We even have one who commutes from Los Angeles. But we are in the South County because that’s where the owner lives.”
Proximity to the owner’s residence is a popular reason for locating a small business--and of an estimated 20,600 business in South Orange County, nearly 66% can be described as “mom and pop” operations with five or fewer employees.
But cost of land is a prime factor in finding locations for larger operations.
And that, too, works in South County’s favor these days.
Although none of it is cheap, land in South County tends to cost less than in the north, business brokers said.
Hughes Aircraft’s microelectronics unit, one of the region’s largest employers with 900 workers, moved into Rancho Santa Margarita last year predominantly for economic reasons, a spokesman said.
When the company decided to leave Irvine--where it occupied several buildings--it did so primarily because company officials were concerned about traffic and because they wanted to consolidate divisions but couldn’t justify Irvine land prices.
Rancho Santa Margarita was picked as the place to move to because the land prices were affordable and because it was closer to the far southern part of the county, where an internal survey showed that many of the microelectronic unit’s professional employees already were living.
TYPES OF BUSINESSES IN SOUTH COUNTY
By Standard Industry Code Total Agriculture, forestry and fisheries 255 (incl. ornamental horticulture) Mining (including oil and gas extraction 29 and refining) Construction (residential, commercial, 1,040 industrial, specialized trades) Manufacturing 524 Transportation, utilities 465 (buses, trucking, taxis, water, sanitation) Wholesale trade 2,456 Retail trade (food, clothing, automotive, 3,475 general merchandise) Finance, insurance and real estate 3,405 Services (business and personal, hotels, 5,659 auto repair, amusement) Medical & other health 1,891 (physicians, dentists, hospitals, clinics, labs) Legal services (attorneys, court reporting 904 services, researchers) Educational services (public and private 160 schools and libraries) Social services (child day care, ob training, 256 family counseling)
Source: Contacts Influential.
SOUTH COUNTY: WHERE THE JOBS ARE
There are 20,519 businesses in south Orange County, as of the end of 1988. Of those, 65.5% have five or fewer employees, and 81.7% have 10 or fewer workers. Only 282 of the businesses (1.3%) have more than 100 workers.
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES Total Locale Businesses 1-2 3-5 6-10 11-25 Capistrano Beach 162 19 102 21 16 Corona del Mar 465 104 257 54 36 Dana Point 474 43 290 70 46 El Toro 1,218 127 680 209 153 East Irvine 56 12 28 8 5 Irvine 4,186 355 1,804 736 640 Laguna Beach 1,026 160 623 134 71 Laguna Hills 1,950 195 1,095 361 196 Laguna Niguel 829 88 517 129 66 Mission Viejo 1,556 159 900 258 155 Newport Beach 4,415 444 2,582 655 446 Rancho Santa 8 0 2 0 2 Margarita San Clemente 1,061 88 715 159 62 San Juan 773 81 447 123 84 Capistrano Silverado Canyon 10 1 7 2 0 Trabuco Canyon 28 4 19 3 1 Tustin 2,302 219 1,263 404 235 TOTALS 20,519 2,099 11,331 3,326 2,214 % of total 100 10.2 55.3 16.2 10.8
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES Total 51- 101- 251- 501 Locale Businesses 26-50 100 250 500 and up Capistrano Beach 162 3 0 1 0 0 Corona del Mar 465 11 1 2 0 0 Dana Point 474 14 10 1 0 0 El Toro 1,218 37 10 2 0 0 East Irvine 56 2 0 1 0 0 Irvine 4,186 311 192 96 27 25 Laguna Beach 1,026 29 6 2 1 0 Laguna Hills 1,950 64 26 10 1 2 Laguna Niguel 829 17 9 1 0 2 Mission Viejo 1,556 42 26 8 2 6 Newport Beach 4,415 170 74 26 10 8 Rancho Santa 8 3 0 1 0 0 Margarita San Clemente 1,061 25 9 2 1 0 San Juan 773 21 10 4 2 1 Capistrano Silverado Canyon 10 0 0 0 0 0 Trabuco Canyon 28 1 0 0 0 0 Tustin 2,302 102 42 29 4 4 TOTALS 20,519 852 415 186 48 48 % of total 100 4.2 2 .9 .2 .2
Source: Contacts Influential.
TRAFFIC TERROR: More roads are being built in South County--but they may not enough. Part I, Page 1.
