Ladera Ranch
Ladera Ranch, CA
Ladera Ranch is an unincorporated planned community located in south Orange County, California just outside the city limits of San Juan Capistrano, Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo.
The community has several features that differentiate it from most others. For example, many traffic speed-reducing measures were put into use. Roundabouts, for example, are commonplace on smaller intersections. Narrow street widths are characteristics of Ladera Ranch’s small residential streets. Landscaped street medians are common, even on two-lane collector streets like O’Neill and Sienna Parkways.
In Ladera Ranch, there are two different types of areas: villages and neighborhoods. Individual builders produce an area that is called a neighborhood. There are ten or more neighborhoods per village, and there are nine villages. Five of the nine villages have clubhouses themed on a particular architecture style that is emphasized within that village. There are also parks, pools, playgrounds and open areas within each village. The Covenant Hills village is a gated community which is closed to the general public, but accessible to all card-carrying residents of Ladera Ranch. Covenant Hills is ranked #1 for Highest-income places in the United States. There are no other gated villages in the community.
In addition to the various clubhouses, the community has key-accessed private water park and skate park, 18 community parks, a dog park, six “plunges” (smaller neighborhood pools not connected to a clubhouse), countless “pocket parks”/ green belts and miles of hiking trails that go all the way to Dohini Beach from its main starting point at the prestigious ‘Vista Toscana’ estate in East Covenant, in the Covenant Hills village.
Education
The community is served by the Capistrano Unified School District. A branch of the Orange County Public Library is located on the campus of Ladera Ranch School.
Within the community are the Chaparral and Oso Grande Elementary Schools and the Ladera Ranch School, which is home to both an elementary school and a middle school on the same campus.
Chaparral Elementary School received the “California Distinguished School Award” in both 2004 and 2008. Ladera Ranch School, which opened in 2004, received the “California Distinguished School Award” in 2007.
Stoneybrooke Christian School is a private K-8 school that is also located in Ladera Ranch. Depending on which part of the community they live in, high school students attend either San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano, or Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita. Prior to its opening in 2007, students in areas currently served by San Juan Hills attended Capistrano Valley High School (Capo). A number of Ladera Ranch’s students still attend Capo, either due to having begun attendance prior to 2007, or by virtue of having been “grandfathered” in through siblings’ attendance.
The community’s college-age students and adults are within a few minutes’ drive of Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California and Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California.
An authentic El Camino Real Bell stands in front of Chaparral Elementary School, donated by the Kruse family, as a reminder of Ladera Ranch’s history.
Ladera Ranch is also home to a Mathnasium Learning Center. The Mathnasium Learning Center of Ladera Ranch has won many awards from community organizations for outstanding supplemental education services including Best Educational Staff for 2009.
