Laguna Woods Village is an age-restricted community for people aged 55 and over in Laguna Woods, California. It is the largest and most populous of the five similar communities in the city. [1] The village, formerly known as Rossmoor-Leisure World, was developed by Ross Cortese, a former fruit stand owner turned retirement community developer. [2]
Ross Cortese's early success in 1961 with Leisure World Seal Beach provided the concept of what would become Laguna Woods Village. [3] 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, [4] to avoid copyright disagreements with the estate of Ross Cortese over the use of the Leisure World name. [5]
Laguna Woods Village is located within the city of Laguna Woods, California, which was incorporated in 1999 as Orange County's 32nd city. [6] 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. [4] There are more than 18,000 residents. [7]
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 and the GRF is responsible for all shared community amenities. [8]
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). [9]
Recreation includes five swimming pools with four hot pools, a 27-hole PGA-rated golf course and a three par nine-hole executive course, [10] 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. [4]
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. [11]
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 Hills is a city in southern Orange County, California, United States. Its name refers to its proximity to Laguna Canyon and the much older Laguna Beach. Other newer cities nearby—Laguna Niguel and Laguna Woods—are similarly named. The population was 31,374 at the 2020 census.
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.
Lake Forest is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The population was 85,858 at the 2020 census.
Rossmoor is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Monroe Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP's population was 2,992, up from 2,666 in 2010.
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.
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.
Alta Laguna Park is a community park atop Temple Hill, the second highest peak of the San Joaquin Hills, in Laguna Beach, California. It is located at the north end of the Top of the World neighborhood.
Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park is a major regional park in the San Joaquin Hills of Orange County, California in the United States. Comprising 4,500 acres (1,800 ha) of rugged coastal canyons, open grassland, and riparian woodland, the park borders the suburban cities of Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel and lies within a portion of the ancestral homeland of the indigenous Acjachemen people.
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 an approximately 4.5-mile (7.2 km) tributary of Aliso Creek in Orange County, California. The creek drains about 6 square miles (16 km2) in the suburban cities of Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills. Although most of its watershed has been utilized for master planned residential development, the creek retains a natural channel with riparian and wetland habitat in parts of Laguna Niguel Regional Park and Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park. Urban runoff has changed the once seasonal creek into a perennial stream.
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
33°37′05″N117°43′06″W / 33.61793065634059°N 117.71844280207381°W