Imagine Angels outfielder Mike Trout on an exceptional day—the final score could read “Trout 7, White Sox 2,” —and you get an idea of Irvine compared to its city-mates in Orange County.
The baseball team may be but one Mike Scioscia small-ball ninth inning above .500—but golly can that guy hit.
Trout’s batting a hundred points above the team combined and leads the 40-man roster in home runs with 23—20% of the group’s total—despite missing 45 of the first 120 games.
Irvine likewise could close for the summer and still get more new residents in nine months than any of the county’s other towns do in a full year.
Irvine’s population rose by 9,905 to 267,086 in the year ended Jan. 1.
The growth was highest on the Business Journal list in both number and percentage—and 47% of the total hike of 21,289.
Box Score
Only four other cities—No. 11, Lake Forest; No. 16, Laguna Niguel; No. 24, Brea; and No. 28, Laguna Hills—topped 1% growth, and 13 of the 34, including two top 10 towns and the six smallest, saw declines.
Final score:
• Irvine annual population growth: 3.9%
• OC annual population growth: 0.7%
The highlight reel also includes:
• Anaheim batting lead-off, ranked No. 1 with 358,546 residents as of Jan. 1 and general fund revenue estimates for its most recent fiscal year of about $300 million.
• Irvine, at No. 3 with the population hike, along with a general fund revenue boost of 7% to $189 million.
All cities combined for general fund revenue of $2.4 billion, up 3%, and a population of just under 3.1 million. 125,000 additional residents live in unincorporated areas of the county.
Heads in Beds
Players that performed well on the OC cities population and fiscal scorecard grew in housing and hotels.
The hospitality mantra of “heads in beds” works here for both travelers and residents.
“Quality of life continues to be a draw,” said Irvine City Manager Sean Joyce. “It’s a beautiful city with safe communities and terrific schools and services.”
With “quality of life” generally true of Irvine—and OC as a whole—what’s the difference?
“We’ve got homes for sale where folks can raise families,” Joyce said. “It’s fair to say OC (overall) is built out.”
Older cities can hold steady on population but Irvine can add to its haul, Joyce said, as areas like Los Olivos, Orchard Hills and Great Park Neighborhoods continue to develop, the last one to contribute “9,500 homes over the next decade.”
One more factor. Fueled by all those companies, big and small, in the Irvine Spectrum, the city leads the way in job growth. And with Irvine’s landowner also its biggest apartment owner, “People say if I work in Irvine I can live here and walk or bike to work,” said Randy Mason, owner of Commercial Realty Specialists.
Platinum Deal
Anaheim seized a division lead six years ago from former biggest burg Santa Ana and held onto the pennant via robust downtown housing development over the last decade, said Chief Communications Officer Mike Lyster.
Lyster said projects from Brookfield Homes and others have brought about 2,000 homes to the area, good for about 3,000 residents.
A pickup in Platinum Triangle projects will spur future city expansion, Lyster said.
“Most of our growth in the future will come from [there],” he said, with 30,000 residents in the area expected “in the next couple decades,” up from 5,000 now.
TOT Lots
Anaheim saw five new hotels with 854 rooms open last year.
The city’s hotel fee—the “transient occupancy tax,” or TOT—is 15% of a room night’s bill.
It brought in $150 million this fiscal year—up $11 million.
General fund revenue growth “was clearly the hotel tax,” Lyster said.
Irvine opened two hotels in its last fiscal year—AC Hotel Irvine and a Homewood Suites—said consultant Atlas Hospitality Group.
That gives a slight TOT boost buttressed by properties charging more in a strong hotels market and “a healthy economy (driving) business-to-business stays,” Joyce said.
Irvine’s TOT is 8%, which brought in $12.5 million in its current fiscal year.
The city has a half-dozen new hotels approved—“most of which are under construction”—and anticipates having 22 hotels with 5,060 rooms by the end of next year.
Triple Crown
Hotel, property and sales taxes drive city revenue.
“That’s 75% of our general fund revenue,” Joyce said.
“The big three,” Lyster said, adding hotels are especially helpful, bringing both bed taxes and property taxes.
Cities get 1% of what the state collects from its 7.25% base sales tax.
Anaheim projects a $79.4 million sales and use tax take in its most recent fiscal year, up about 2.5%, and a 3.9% boost this year to $82.6 million.
“Sales tax is significant,” Lyster said.
Extra Inning
Irvine aside, this year’s Business Journal list of OC cities also infers a 15-year demographic trend: OC is losing population but for 65-plus—a very important story but one lacking in baseball metaphors.
