Irvine, California

Irvine is an incorporated city located in Orange County, California. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated in 1971, the 46-square mile city has a population of 152,048 (as of 2003). It currently has plans to annex an undeveloped area to the north, as well as the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, most of which is to be made into a park called the Orange County Great Park.

A planned city

The layout of Irvine was designed by the famous Los Angeles architect William Pereira, and is divided into townships (called villages) that are self-contained except for income-generating activities. The townships are separated by six-lane streets. Each township includes a spectrum of similar types of dwellings, along with shopping, religious institutions and schools. Commercial districts are checker-boarded in a periphery around the central townships.

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Pereira originally envisioned an Atlantis-like circular plan with numerous man-made lakes, and the university in the center. When the Irvine Company refused to relinquish valuable farmland in the flat central region of the ranch for this plan, the University site was moved to the base of the southern coastal hills. Pereira associate Raymond Watson then stepped in, drafting the current design which he based on the shape of a necklace (with the villages strung along two parallel main streets, which terminate at UCI, the "pendant"). Traces of the original circular design are visible in the layout of the UCI campus and the two man-made lakes at the center of Woodbridge, the City's most prominent village.

Related Topics:
Atlantis - UCI

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All streets have landscaping allowances. Rights-of-way for powerlines also serve as bicycle corridors, parks and greenbelts to tie together ecological preserves. The greenery is irrigated with reclaimed water.

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Many of the homeowner's associations are extremely powerful, controlling every facet of the appearance of one's home, including color, roofing, and landscaping. Even trivial matters such as the allowable types of cars parked outside of one's home are dictated by associations. However, one must note that this is not limited to the city of Irvine. Affluent regions in nearby cities such as Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, and Tustin also employ the same practice.

Related Topics:
Homeowner's associations - Costa Mesa - Newport Beach - Tustin

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