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OC Cities’ Populations Increase 1% to Top 3 Million

Orange County’s population growth kept pace and inched up by 1% last year to slightly above 3 million.

This week’s Business Journal list ranks the 34 cities in Orange County by population as of Jan. 1. The list also shows the current numbers of city employees, as well as general fund revenue for the 2014-15 fiscal year ended June 30, though those don’t figure into the ranking.

The numbers were either provided by the cities to the Business Journal or obtained from municipal budget reports.

There were no changes to the rankings from a year ago.

All cities had population increases, with 27 of them notching gains of less than 1%. OC has eight cities with populations larger than 100,000 that account for about 56% of the county’s total.

The 34 cities combined for 14,683 full-time and part-time city employees, up about 3% from the year-earlier tally. The number is as of the Business Journal’s survey last month and typically fluctuates throughout the year depending on the need for part-time or seasonal staff.

The cities had $2.2 billion in general fund revenue for the recently ended fiscal year, up 4% from a year earlier.

• Anaheim maintained the No. 1 spot, with a population of 351,433 at the beginning of this year. That was up 0.9% from a year earlier, or by 3,064.

Anaheim had $265.6 million in general fund revenue for the recent fiscal year, up about 8% year-over-year. It had 2,971 city employees.

• Santa Ana is No. 2, with a population of 335,264, up 0.9%. The city has 1,107 employees.

Irvine

• Irvine is No. 3, with a population of 250,384. The city continued to grow at a relatively fast pace, notching the biggest year-over-year increase on the list—both in terms of percentage and raw numbers—at 3.2%, or by 7,708.

The population growth follows a year-earlier increase of 5%.

Irvine Mayor Steven Choi pointed to several factors contributing to the steady growth.

“First of all, Irvine is still a young city, and it’s still growing,” he said. “I would say somewhere close to 15% is yet to be built. So it’s still in growth mode. … Also, being a fast-growing city means that demand [for homes] is high. … Developers cannot build fast enough to meet the demand.”

Choi also said he credits the city’s push to position itself as “a future hub for technology companies” through initiatives, such as the Irvine Tech Valley, for helping the city grow and become more attractive to entrepreneurs and investors.

“The Irvine Company embraced [that] vision from two years ago, and they dedicated one building—5151 California Ave.—as a center for startup companies. And with EvoNexus, they select companies and house them in their building free of charge. They consult and guide the startups through successful advisers, and they eventually hook them up with venture capitalists.”

Choi said the goal is to keep the talent and resources here “rather than sending them to Silicon Valley.”

“There are all these universities within about an hour from Irvine,” he said. “Irvine is geographically the center of all this [talent]. I don’t want to send my young people to Northern California. Every city has the right to try, and we are one of them.”

• No. 4, Huntington Beach, had population growth of about 1% to 198,389. It had a 1.7% general revenue increase to $208.4 million.

Brea

• Brea ranks No. 24 with a population total of 43,328, up 2.2%, the second biggest percentage increase on the list and the largest among cities with populations of less than 100,000.

The population increase could be attributed in large part to a couple of master-planned community projects that are ongoing, said Community Development Director David Crabtree.

“One is the La Floresta project. We had probably 500 or so new homes occupied over the past year, and more is being constructed now as part of the plan,” he said. “The other is the Blackstone project with Shea Homes and Standard Pacific Homes … which will be close to 700 units when completed.”

Crabtree said commercial activity also has been “vibrant.”

“We’ve seen some exciting new tenants in our downtown area, new restaurant starts and so forth,” he said. “Our city council right now is considering [another] parking garage downtown. That holds the potential to unlock some future possibilities, as well. We’re also seeing some industrial starts that we really haven’t seen before.”

• Mission Viejo, No. 9, had the highest raw-number growth among cities with fewer than 100,000 residents. Its population grew by 1,332 for a total of 96,652.

Small Increases

Cities with population increases of fewer than 100 each included Seal Beach, which ranked No. 29 with 24,684 after gaining 98 last year.

• La Palma, No. 32, had a population of 15,965, up by 75.

The last bits of La Palma’s commercial and residential properties are being developed, including the last commercial pad at Centerpointe La Palma, the city’s major business campus, which was initiated in 1985.

“We did a groundbreaking a month ago, and the building is going to be part retail, part commercial,” said Mayor Peter Kim. “We’re very excited about that.”

The city planning commission also recently approved plans to develop a number of single-family homes on the last remaining patch of farming property. The land is owned by the Ozawa family, which grew strawberries and had their residence on Walker Street.

“The family has owned the property since [the 1950s] … and the children decided to divest themselves from the property,” Kim said. “The farm no longer exists … and I think the target is to start some kind of construction sometime this year.”

• Villa Park, the smallest city in Orange County, had a total of 5,960, up by 28.

Most of the cities had increases in their recent fiscal year general fund revenue. A few notched double-digit increases, including Laguna Beach, whose revenue increased nearly 14% to $55 million; and Dana Point, whose revenue was up 13% to $33.5 million.

A handful of cities’ recent general fund revenue decreased, including Yorba Linda, whose revenue fell nearly 8% from the year earlier to $29 million. Lake Forest had a 2% drop to about $39 million.

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