Irvine Co. Expands Design to Include Half-Acre Lots in Shady Canyon Area
After decades of designing communities with postage-stamp-sized lots, the Irvine Co. is approaching its latest community with the notion that bigger is better.
Amid rocky terrain and stands of native oaks and sycamores, company planners are spreading 350 custom-home sites across nearly 1,100 acres in the Shady Canyon area of Irvine.
Lots will average more than half an acre--the first time the company has provided so much space for each home in a development.
The development recognizes that too often, million-dollar Southern California homes are built so close to one another, like cars in a crowded parking lot, offering residents little privacy.
Throughout the company-designed city of Irvine, the nation’s largest master-planned community, single-family homes commonly are built about 10 to 12 per acre. But in Shady Canyon, Irvine officials have arranged for one to two detached homes on each acre.
The Newport Beach-based company believes the extra breathing room, combined with a short commute to the Irvine Spectrum business and entertainment park and other job-rich areas, will become a magnet for home buyers.
Despite signs of a slowing economy, about 1,900 people interested in Shady Grove lots have signed up with the company, a reaction largely to word of mouth because no marketing campaign has been launched.
“All of our research reinforces that there’s a significant amount of people in the market that want this kind of environment,” said Donald Moe, a senior vice president at the Irvine Co., Orange County’s largest landowner.
With land at a premium, low-density communities like Shady Canyon are rare in Southern California. Typical developments have homes built on small lots, though a few companies are bucking the pattern.
Lennar Communities is selling 250 parcels ranging from a quarter-acre to two acres at the Bridges, its project in San Diego County’s Rancho Santa Fe. After little more than a year, 60 lots around a private golf course have been sold, said Emile Haddad, the company’s president. Lot prices range from $600,000 to $2.8 million, he said, and membership to the golf course runs $250,000.
But Haddad said he sees no widespread trend toward developing homes on large-scale properties. “Land is so scarce nowadays that builders are trying to maximize its efficiency,” he said.
While homes have been built on large lots in Coto de Caza and Villa Park in recent years, they haven’t been built in the heart of any major city in the county.
“We have no communities with large lots and custom homes near any of the employment centers in Orange County,” said John Burns, an analyst at the Meyers Group, an Irvine research firm.
People who may have spent $3 million for ocean-view homes and still feel boxed in will probably become prime buyers in Shady Canyon, Burns said.
The new lots are expected to range from $600,000 to $2 million. When the development opens next summer, the project could turn out to have the most expensive homes in Southern California without an ocean view, Burns said.
Rather than cutting parcels into rectangles, a practice prevalent in master-planned communities, the Irvine Co. will built homes in Shady Canyon on lots shaped by the land’s contours, said Bill Martin, director of construction for the Irvine Community Development Co., the Irvine Co.’s residential arm.
Taking a page from other upscale areas like Rancho Palos Verdes and Rancho Santa Fe, strict design codes will be enforced in the gated community. To maintain a low profile, streets will be narrower, street lights will be fewer and homes will be limited to 2,400 square feet on the second level.
Company officials hope the homes blend more into the natural environment, creating a rural feeling among buyers. Palm trees--a ubiquitous but imported symbol of Southern California--will be banned in Shady Canyon.
Instead, consumers will find streams, canyon views and rolling hills peppered with sage and sandstone.
“We want the landscaping to appear as though it grew out of the environment, rather than something placed upon it,” Moe said.
The development also will include a 300-acre golf course, about twice the size of a typical course, 24 detached golf villas and a 43,000-square-foot clubhouse. More than 600 people have added their names to a list of prospective members of the private golf club, which would be the first in Irvine, Moe said.
The company remains bullish on the project despite eroding consumer confidence, sliding economic indicators and a weakening stock market, which is a key source of funds for down payments. Despite the threatening economic clouds, demand for luxury homes appears to be firm.
Million-dollar homes in nearby Crystal Cove, Newport Coast and Monarch Beach have been selling for nearly two years at a steady pace, analysts said. But if a recession occurs, sales could come to a halt.
“I think the timing on this project would have been better a year ago,” Burns said. “But I still think the local economy is strong enough that the project will do well.”
