Laguna Woods Village is an age-restricted community for people aged 55 and over in Laguna Woods, California. The development, formerly known as Leisure World, was developed by Ross Cortese, a former fruit stand owner turned retirement community developer. [1]
Ross Cortese's early success in 1961 with Leisure World Seal Beach provided the concept of what would become Laguna Woods Village. [2] Cortese purchased several sites across the nation, including 3,500 acres (14 km2) of rural land on the Moulton Ranch, located in the Saddleback Valley of southern Orange County, California.
Construction of Laguna Woods Village began in the spring of 1963 with an initial phase of 530 units. The first ten homeowners moved into the community on September 10, 1964.
In October 2005 the community formally changed its name to what is now known as Laguna Woods Village, [3] to avoid copyright disagreements with the estate of Ross Cortese over the use of the Leisure World name. [4]
Laguna Woods Village is located within the City of Laguna Woods, California, which was incorporated in 1999 as Orange County's 32nd city. [5] Laguna Woods Village comprises approximately ninety percent of the city's 4 square miles (10 km2). Laguna Woods is bordered by Irvine, Lake Forest, Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo, and Laguna Beach. Aliso Creek roughly bisects the community.
The average age of the residents of Laguna Woods Village is 78. [3]
The governance of the community is organized under the California Non Profit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law. There are four such corporations, two of which are mutual housing corporations, a third is the Golden Rain Foundation (commonly called GRF) which manages all common amenities and grounds, and a fourth, Village Management Services Board which oversees the self-owned management company. The housing mutuals are responsible for services directly related to housing and common areas within their mutual the and GRF is responsible for all shared community amenities. [6]
The community has fourteen guarded gates with a private security department that provides traffic enforcement, patrol service and gate control 24 hours a day. Residences here are made up of three housing corporations known as Mutuals. The Third Mutual includes single-family homes and condo units. United Mutual offers 18 different sizes of co-op condos. The Towers 50 Mutual offers condo units in two high rise buildings. Homes are referred to as manors and owners are required to meet minimum financial requirements for purchase and a background check. In total there are 94 floor plans available in the community that range from 675 to 2,589 square feet (62.7 to 240.5 m2). [7]
Recreation includes five swimming pools with four hot pools, a 27-hole PGA-rated golf course and a three par nine-hole executive course, [8] three fitness centers, ten tennis courts, horse stables, seven paddle tennis courts, and pickleball courts (4 lighted), bocce courts, and seven clubhouses. There is an arts and crafts clubhouse with slip casting, pottery, sculpture, lapidary, stained glass, sewing, quilting, jewelry, glass enamel on copper, a wood shop, a machine shop, an art studio and photography. There are also lawn bowling courts, shuffleboard courts, ping-pong tables, pool tables, and indoor archery. [3]
There are over 250 official clubs in Laguna Woods Village. Dozens of classes and activities are organized by the community's recreation department. In addition, nearby Saddleback College offers over 200 emeritus classes within Laguna Woods Village.
Laguna Woods Village is self managed by Village Management Services, Inc. [9]
Aliso Viejo is a city in the San Joaquin Hills of southern Orange County, California. It had a population of 52,176 as of the 2020 census, up from 47,823 as of the 2010 census. It became Orange County's 34th city on July 1, 2001, the only city in Orange County to be incorporated since 2000. It is bordered by the cities of Laguna Beach on the west and southwest, Laguna Hills on the east, Laguna Niguel on the southeast, and Laguna Woods on the north. It is similarly named to another nearby city, Mission Viejo.
Laguna Niguel is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The name Laguna Niguel is derived from the words "Laguna" and "Niguili". As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,355. Laguna Niguel is located in the San Joaquin Hills in the southeastern corner of Orange County, close to the Pacific Ocean, and borders the cities of Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, and San Juan Capistrano.
Laguna Woods is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The population was 17,644 at the 2020 census, up from 16,192 at the 2010 census, with a median age of 74.5.
Leisure World is a census-designated place and unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is an age-restricted, gated development primarily inhabited by retirees. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 9,215. Leisure World was known as the Rossmoor census-designated place for the 2000 census.
Rossmoor is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Monroe Township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP's population was 2,666.
Ladera Ranch is a master-planned community and census-designated place located in south Orange County, California, just outside the city limits of Mission Viejo.
Saddleback Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) is a public school district in South Orange County, California. It includes 23 elementary schools, four intermediate schools, four comprehensive high schools, and four alternative schools. It serves all of Lake Forest and Laguna Hills and serves parts of Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, and a very small portion of Irvine. It also serves the unincorporated communities of Trabuco Canyon and Modjeska. Also, while Laguna Woods has no schools due to it being a retirement community, students who live with relatives in the area may choose to attend schools in the Saddleback Valley district.
Saddleback Valley refers to the flat and foothill areas west-southwest of the Saddleback double peak of the Santa Ana Mountains and east-northeast of the hilly Crystal Cove State Park in southern Orange County, California. The region primarily encompasses the cities of Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, and Rancho Santa Margarita, as well as the communities of Coto de Caza and Ladera Ranch. The cities of Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills, and Laguna Niguel, as well as some of Orange County's eastern canyon communities, partially reside within the valley. The southeastern portion of Irvine also encroaches upon the area, but the two are not typically associated with each other.
Leisure World Seal Beach is an active-seniors’ retirement community opened in 1962 that introduced many innovations characterizing later senior property developments. When built, it was the nation's first mass-marketed housing project, first gated senior community, first all-electric community, and the first to have a health insurance plan and access to an on-site medical center included in its residents’ monthly payments. At its opening, it was the world's largest housing development for seniors, the United States’ largest cooperative housing development, and the prototype for six other Leisure World communities across the United States built by the Rossmoor Corp, co-founded by developers Ross W. Cortese and his wife, Alona Marlowe Cortese. It is located in Seal Beach, which fronts the Pacific Ocean in Orange County, California. Leisure World houses approximately 9,600 residents in 6,608 one- and two-bedroom apartments and condominiums.
Rossmoor is a gated community in Walnut Creek, California, with a population of about 9,200. It was one of the first "active adult" communities for residents 55 years or older in the San Francisco Bay Area.
An age-restricted community is a residential community, often gated, that legally discriminates on the basis of age to limit residency to a majority fraction of older individuals—typically 80% over a set age. The minimum age is frequently set at 55 years old, but it can vary.
California's 40th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California, encompassing Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties. The district is currently represented by Republican Young Kim. It was one of 18 districts that would have voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election had they existed in their current configuration while being won or held by a Republican in 2022.
San Joaquin Hills is a guard-gated planned community in the city of Laguna Niguel, California in the San Joaquin Hills of Orange County, California. The community is set in the northernmost foothills of the city of Laguna Niguel, and construction began in 1997 after a 1994 approval from the city council to construct the development. It is composed of four community subdivisions, or enclaves of smaller subdivisional units. Each neighborhood within San Joaquin Hills has about 250 homes within its limits, and parks, as well as a community recreation and pool. There are a total of 910 homes in the development, and an estimated population of around 2,750 residents. It maintains its own Community Association, which maintains all the community centers and pools, as well as the landscaping. There are two entrances into the development from two separate gates. Its general boundaries begin at the Moulton Parkway and Aliso Creek Road intersection.
Aliso Creek is a 19.8-mile (31.9 km)-long, mostly urban stream in south Orange County, California. Originating in the Cleveland National Forest in the Santa Ana Mountains, it flows generally southwest and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Laguna Beach. The creek's watershed drains 34.9 square miles (90 km2), and it is joined by seven main tributaries. As of 2018, the watershed had a population of 144,000 divided among seven incorporated cities.
Laguna Canyon, also called Cañada de las Lagunas, is a gorge that cuts through the San Joaquin Hills in southern Orange County, California, in the United States, directly south of the city of Irvine. The canyon runs from northeast to southwest, and is drained on the north side by tributaries of San Diego Creek and on the south by Laguna Canyon Creek. It is deeper and more rugged on the southwestern end near Laguna Beach.
Sulphur Creek is a 4.5-mile (7.2 km) tributary of Aliso Creek in Orange County in the U.S. state of California. The creek drains about 6 square miles (16 km2) of residential communities and parks in the southern San Joaquin Hills.
Aliso Canyon is a 6.5-mile (10.5 km) canyon located in Orange County, California in the United States. The canyon is a water gap across the San Joaquin Hills carved out by Aliso Creek, possibly as recently as the last ice age. Located in a semi-arid climate, it supports a variety of plant communities – mainly chaparral and coastal sage scrub – and native animals, some endangered.
Rancho Niguel was a 13,316-acre (53.89 km2) Mexican land grant in the San Joaquin Hills, within present-day Orange County, California.
Dana Point State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is one of four adjoining marine protected areas off the coast of Orange County, CA, on California’s South Coast. By itself, the SMCA measures 3.45 square miles. The SMCA protects marine life by limiting the removal of marine wildlife from within its borders, including tide pools. Dana Point SMCA prohibits take of living marine resources except: only the following species may be taken recreationally below the mean lower low tide line only: finfish by hook-and-line or by spearfishing, and lobster and sea urchin. The commercial take of coastal pelagic species by round haul net, and spiny lobster and sea urchin only is allowed.
Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve (SMR) and Laguna Beach State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) are two adjoining marine protected areas that extend offshore of Laguna Beach in Orange County on California’s south coast. The SMR covers 6.27 square miles, and the SMCA covers an additional 3.44 square miles. These two MPAs are part of a four-MPA complex on the coast of southern Orange County. Each protects marine life by prohibiting or limiting the removal of marine wildlife from within its borders.
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