Orange County’s new hot spot is Brea, when looking at population growth in the Business Journal’s annual ranking of cities by population.
The northern Orange County city reported 45,606 residents as of Jan. 1, a 2.4% jump in one year’s time.
That’s the largest percentage gain of any of OC’s 34 cities (see list, page 24).
Brea is OC’s 24th-most populous city. It has added about 5,000 people over the prior decade, according to Business Journal data.
“Over the last eight years, there’s a lot of new housing coming online,” said Dwight Manley, a rare coin expert and sports agent who is often referred to as “Mr. Brea” because of his extensive involvement in the city’s real estate industry.
He is downtown Brea’s largest property owner, and owns buildings including the Gaslight Square and the majority of properties in that area.
“We have this unique place with the hills and we’re in the center of Southern California.”
Manley pointed to new housing projects like La Floresta and Central Park Village that are coming online.
He said even more will soon be available.
“We’re the tortoise and the hare would be Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa,” he said.
Irvine Going Strong
Irvine saw the most overall growth in population, with 6,174 new residents added to the city last year.
By percentage growth, it ranked second behind Brea, climbing 2.2% to 280,202.
Irvine has seen thousands of new homes and apartments built in the Great Park Neighborhoods, various Irvine Co. developments, and new complexes in the Irvine Business Complex near the John Wayne Airport.
A decade ago, Irvine had about 210,000 residents. It’s grown 33% since then, and now is OC’s third-largest city.
Overall, Orange County’s 34 cities recorded a 0.3% population growth over a one year period to 3.1 million.
By comparison, San Diego County counts about 3.3 million people, Los Angeles County around 10.2 million.
OC’s population gains last year were limited to 12 cities. Twenty-two cities, led by Los Alamitos and La Palma, each down 0.6%, saw a decline.
The Business Journal list ranks cities by their population as of Jan. 1.
It shows Anaheim as still the most populous, up 0.2% to 359,339, followed by Santa Ana, which fell 0.4% to 337,716.
Funding Data
Along with population, the list also details employment figures for each city, along with city revenues.
Among notable trends:
• In total, the cities reported their general fund revenue climbed 4.4% to $2.65 billion.
The two top growers were Stanton, up 17% to $26.3 million, and Fountain Valley, up 17% to $57.7 million.
Only five of the cities reported a drop in revenue.
Anaheim has the biggest budget, up 4.7% to $327.5 million, following by Santa Ana, up 5.6% to $241 million.
The smallest budget belonged to Villa Park, at $3.5 million, up 0.2% from a year ago. Villa Park is also the smallest city in the county with 5,933 residents, down 0.47% from a year ago.
• The number of city employees rose 1.2% to 16,492.
The biggest increases occurred at San Clemente, up 20% to 414, and Seal Beach, up 14% to 213.
The largest employee decline was 22% at Laguna Woods, which fell from nine to seven, making it the city with the smallest number of employees.
Anaheim, which owns its own utility, had the highest number of employees, 3,173, up 0.7%. Huntington Beach, the fourth-biggest city with 203,761 residents, reported 1,515 employees, down 2.8% from a year ago.
