One Developer’s Problem Is Other’s Chance to Build
By DANIEL D. WILLIAMS
Homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. has neighbors to thank for its proposed Canyon Oaks community in Anaheim Hills.
The Corona office of the Arlington, Texas-based company plans to build 106 single-family homes in the Maag Ranch section of Anaheim Hills. D.R. Horton paid $15.2 million for the 18.9-acre site.
How D.R. Horton came about the project is a story of two competing interests in Orange County real estate: retail and housing. The site’s prior owners, GME Anaheim LLC and the OC office of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers Corp., had planned a big retail center on the site and even more homes.
But a lengthy battle between GME and Regency and nearby residents opened the door for D.R. Horton to step up with Canyon Oaks. The homes are set to start in the $400,000s and range from 2,600 to 3,000 square feet on lots of about 5,000 square feet.
William Hezmalhalch Architects Inc. of Irvine is set to design the homes in a mix of traditional styles including Spanish and Colonial. The project is expected to resemble another recent D.R. Horton development, Parkside, off Weir Canyon Road.
While the project is a bit of a windfall for D.R. Horton, demand for Canyon Oaks homes is expected to be brisk, said Mark Hicks, vice president of sales and marketing.
“We introduced Parkside about six months ago and have had great success, already selling 35 of 88 homes,” he said.
D.R. Horton expects to start work on the site in coming weeks, with models ready in November and an opening set for May 2003.
The project also is telling of how housing gets built in North County. Unlike in South County, homebuilders in North OC have to search for pockets of land, be it former oil property, or, as in this case, land formerly zoned mostly for retail.
But the Canyon Oaks site has a more problematic history than many. Initial plans called for a retail power center with a Barnes & Noble and an Old Navy, along with as many as 136-single family homes on 24.5 acres.
But the project shrank in the past few years in the face of neighborhood opposition.
“A residential element was always part of the plan,” said Tom McDonough, senior vice president of investments for the Southern California region of Regency Centers, which GME teamed with in 1999 to develop the site.
The property had been zoned commercial and residential, but the mix wasn’t right, he said.
“It was zoned 25% commercial and 75% residential,” he said. “We needed more of a 60 % commercial and 40% residential split to make things work.”
The GME-Regency plans were opposed by Concerned Citizens of the Canyon, which raised issues of traffic congestion, school overcrowding, preservation of century-old eucalyptus trees and the sustainability of a strawberry field on the land.
The group also argued that an adjacent retail center anchored by LA Fitness was good enough for the neighborhood.
The residents’ group prevailed in repeatedly delaying the project, McDonough said. Finally the right opportunity came along to sell the property, he said.
Even so, McDonough said he’s frustrated by a lack of land for retail developers.
“We would love to do more retail projects in Orange County, but so much land is controlled by The Irvine Company,” he said. “The opportunities are few and far between, which sends us to other counties.”
