When Gen. William Lyon chose Coto de Caza as the new home for his family in 1981, the 5,000-acre rural master-planned community was just being put on the map.
Though ownership ties for the sprawling community date back to the 1930s, construction on the first batch of homes didn’t kick off until 1975, when a subsidiary of Pennsylvania Railroad owned the neighborhood.
The isolated South County community reportedly struggled to find buyers initially, and when Florida-based Arvida Corp. took over ownership in 1979, it launched advertisements touting the seclusion, targeting buyers that wanted “to live in the country—not far from the city.”
This worked for Lyon, the late homebuilding icon and founder of William Lyon Homes whom the Business Journal paid tribute to in last week’s print edition.
Lee Ann Canaday of the Canaday Group, part of Re/Max Fine Homes, notes Lyon “went from a fabulous home at the tip of Lido Isle to Coto,” where he bought a 134-acre parcel of land that would ultimately hold a 20,000-square-foot home, an immense garage to hold his car collection, sporting courts, horse stables and a helipad, among other features.
The prominent estate, which wrapped construction in 1985, is perched on a hill overlooking Coto de Caza drive.
“There’s nothing in Orange County like it,” said Canaday, adding that she’s unaware of what the home’s true valuation is.
“That’s a difficult number to come up with.”
Lyon Subdivision
Coto de Caza got its final big development push in 1996, when Miami-based Lennar Corp. bought 2,200 acres from Chevron Land and Development Co.
The neighborhood was largely built out by 2003, with little room for new development, as hundreds of acres of land continue to be preserved.
One potential source of future development for the neighborhood is the Lyon estate. County filings from 2017 indicate that the General was going through the approval process to subdivide a nearly 64-acre portion of his land into 25 single-family lots.
It’s unclear where this proposal stands, or if these lots—which would be at least 2 acres apiece—are to be sold to new owners or developers.
There’s also opportunity for new development at the site of the former Merryhill elementary school, near the Village, where Coto’s first homes reside.
“There’s been talk of developers looking for approvals to build more custom homes on the land there,” said Ken Bowen of The Bowen Team, a longtime Coto broker and resident since the early 1990s.
Cat’s Meow
There are a few other vacant lots to be found throughout Coto de Caza, including in Los Ranchos Estate, a gated community within the gated community that holds some of the priciest real estate in the neighborhood.
The area was among the first to be developed, and currently holds close to 80 custom homes with long-term owners, as well as a handful of vacant parcels for new development, according to Canaday.
“It’s larger lots on flat land, making it more valuable,” she said. “It’s always been the cat’s meow of Coto.”
Overall sales activity for Coto de Caza is slower than other OC markets, such as coastal areas in Newport Beach.
“It takes a little longer to find buyers who want to be in a more secluded area like Coto, but there are plenty of people who are excited about the remote neighborhood, and the amenities it brings,” said Canaday, noting the area’s equestrian stables, trails and golf courses as main selling points for the area.
The neighborhood is relatively undervalued as a result of its seclusion, notes Bowen, with many still “unaware of the community and what is has to offer.”
“Like other markets right now, we have very limited inventory, but the listings we do have are getting a lot of activity as of late,” said Bowen.
Lyon himself took advantage of the amenities and lifestyle that Coto promotes, including playing tennis, one of his favorite sports, at the Golf & Racquet Club, and picking up horseback riding for a time, after the estate’s stables were established.
“He also did so much for our local catholic high school,” Bowen said of Santa Margarita Catholic School, where Lyon’s son, Bill H., attended during the first years of the school’s opening.
“He was a wonderful fixture of the community.”
Reagan’s Blessing
No other resident has come close to owning as much land in Coto as the Lyon family, who frequently showcased their grandiose estate in philanthropic and political events, such as a fundraising event for the Ronald Reagan presidential library.
The estate has been visited by several Republican presidents, some of whom Lyon counted as friends, including Reagan.
During one of Reagan’s first visits to the home, he quipped that the Orange County estate was “a hell of a lot better than the White House.”
