Anaheim Hills

Anaheim Hills is a master planned community encompassing the eastern portions of the city of Anaheim, in Orange County, California. There is a police substation and community center along Santa Ana Canyon Road. The Anaheim City Council includes the community under the Canyon and Hills Area General Plan. It covers an area just south of the 91 freeway to the Orange, California city border. The plan's western border is the 55 freeway and its eastern border extends to Gypsum Canyon and the Riverside County Line. The area has two zip codes that serve the community. The 92808 zip code serves the eastern portion, whereas the 92807 zip code serves the western portion. Not all parts of the 92807 zip code are located in Anaheim Hills, only those residents south of the 91 freeway. As of the 2000 Census, the community houses 54,000 residents.

A group that calls themselves Incorporate Anaheim Hills™ formed in July of 2006 with a goal of making Anaheim Hills its own city, along with Orange Hills, California. This organization is non profit, and consists of a 5 member council that is to be elected by the end of 2006. The group operates by assigning members to outreach zones throughout areas of Anaheim and Orange in which that person is responsable for passing along information, and holding meetings in that area. The group currently has close to 2,500 members.

History

File:Anaheimhills1925.jpg

Anaheim farmlands with Anaheim Hills in the background as it appeared in 1925

Prior to the modern era of Anaheim Hills, the region was owned by Jose Antonio Yorba and his nephew Juan Pablo Peralta. They worked the 210,000 acre Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda site in the early 1800's, which was used as a livestock ranch. It would change hands several times before it was sold to Louis Nohl in 1943 by the Bixby family.

Meanwhile in the nearby city of Anaheim, a housing boom was associated with the building of Disneyland in 1955 and other developments of that era. Anaheim began to expand its borders to encompass more land and the only direction was east, towards the location of the large Nohl Family farm.

In 1970, Nohl sold the land to the City of Anaheim in order to create the community of Anaheim Hills. In October of 1971, Texaco Industries introduced an award winning plan, which they called a "master planned community". A premium golf course, nature trails, large homes, natural settings, and ranches were added to the Texaco Development plan in order to add to the appeal of the community for potential home buyers in the early 1970s, as they were amenities uncommon to many other Southern California communities at the time.

The first community to premiere was Westridge which showcased 325 homes in 1972. The homes sold within two years of its premiere, creating an interest in the Anaheim Hills region. By the 1980s, Anaheim Hills had grown to 15,000 residents.

Geography

Anaheim Hills has a total of 18.97 square miles. 17.6 square miles (92.8%) is land, 1.37 square miles (7.2%) is water. The highest point in Anaheim Hills is Point Premier which is 1,921 feet above sea level. The lowest point is 231 feet above sea level, centered at the East Anaheim Post Office.

Demographics

Based on the demographic research of Incorporate Anaheim Hills™ the data for the Anaheim Hills and Orange Hills Demographics can be determined. Anaheim Hills has a population of around 54,000 residents, Orange Hills has a population of around 12,800. The following demographic data is based upon the combination of Anaheim Hills and Orange Hills information avaliable. There are 22,000 households in the communities, with an average of 2.93 residents per unit. 76.6% of the total Anaheim Hills population is caucasian, 15.4% is Asian, 1.6% are African American, or Black, 3.7% are Hispanic, and 2.7% are marked as other. The median household income is $119,007 for the two communities combined.

Climate

The median July average high temperature is 90.0 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 °C), and the January average low is 39.6 degrees Fahrenheit (4.2 °C). Anaheim Hills averages 15.02 inches (382 mm) of precipitation annually, spanned over an average of 33 rainy days. Of that 15.02 inches, only 0.04 inches fall as snow. The community is set on the Mediterranean/Desert Climatical Border of the Southwestern quadrant of California.

Commerce

Much of Anaheim Hills' commercial activity is in the Anaheim Hills Festival, an outdoor, upscale mall located along Santa Ana Canyon Road. Anaheim Hills has several business districts located throughout. The community's hosts corporate headquarters and various branches of these companies, including Eastwood Insurance, Lasco Bathware, Fremont, DR Horton Southern California, and others.

Education

Anaheim Hills is within the Orange Unified School District. All six of the elementary schools in Anaheim Hills, Anaheim Hills Elementary, Canyon Rim Elementary, Running Springs Elementary, Imperial Elementary, Nohl Canyon Elementary, and Crescent Elementary perform well, and are all blue ribbon schools, which is the most accredited award an elementary school can achieve. And four of them are California Distinguished Schools, an award only the top 5% of schools in California are rewarded. Anaheim Hills Elementary ranks third statewide among similar schools.

Anaheim Hills' middle school, El Rancho Charter School, has placed first in the Southern California state Science Olympiad competition for nine consecutive years and is one of only three middle schools in Orange County receiving the "California Distinguished Schools" award. The Canyon High School baseball team continues its ten year streak of CIF qualifications and wins.

Boundaries

Although residents typically identify themselves as living in "Anaheim Hills" (as opposed to "Anaheim"), the name is not accepted by the United States Postal Service for use in a mailing address; according to their online ZIP Code Lookup, only "Anaheim" is acceptable. Two postal service substations are located in the community.

The borders of Anaheim Hills are not officially defined by Census, but are noted under the Canyon and Hill Area General Plan, and the Homeowners association that comprises Anaheim Hills. To the west, Anaheim Hills is bordered by the California State Route 55 and the 92806 zip code border. The eastern border is the Riverside County line, and the Gypsum Canyon Open Space. To the north, Anaheim Hills is bordered by the California State Route 91, and to the south the community is bordered by the Orange, California city border. The community's boundaries are not strictly defined by zip codes, but rather the roads and city borders that surround it serve as the customary borders.

Communities

Anaheim Hills contains a number of smaller communities including Peralta Hills, Hidden Canyon, Copa de Oro, Viewpointe, Vista del Sol, Pointe Premier (highest point in Anaheim Hills), and the soon-to-be-built Village of Fiesole and Villa Palatino.

Another notable community addition coming to Anaheim Hills is the Mountain Park Development pioneered by the Irvine Company. It will be the final master planned community offered in Orange County, California, and will encompass 2,500 homes, a shopping district, and an elementary school. The Community has been in the planning phases since 1992, and was approved by the city council in 2005. It was scaled back from 8,000 homes to less than 3,000 after several petitions and complaints from residents who did not want their hills to face overdevelopment.It will push Anaheim Hills to the Riverside, California border, and will push the population of Anaheim Hills to a total of 62,000 residents. The development is set on a location that was selected as the prison for Southern California in the 1960s, but due to the economical growth in Orange County, the project was abandoned, and this abandonment gave way for the growth in the Anaheim Hills area in the 1970s.

Disasters

Landslides and wildfires are frequent occurrences in Anaheim Hills. Santa Ana Winds are a major factor in fueling the wildfires in the area. [1] [2]. A landslide in January 1993, destroyed over 30 luxury homes and impacted over 200 others. [3]

The Ramsgate landslide

During the winter of 2005, a massive twenty day rain event in Orange County lead to not only flooding, but a landslide that caused the unstable hillside along the street of Ramsgate Drive to give way. Two multi-million dollar homes slid down the hillside, and the Nature Park that sat right below it was virtually left in shambles. In all, the entire hillside, nearly 60 acres in size completely collapsed costing a total estimated damage of $19.5 million dollars, the second most costly landslide ever in Orange County.

The Sierra Peak wildfire

Following the unusually wet winter of 2005 brought drought conditions to Southern California that hadn't been seen for nearly a decade. The normally lush hills turned to dry golden timber.

A wildfire broke out on February 7, 2006 in the Cleveland National Forest, the National Forest that separates Anaheim Hills from the Riverside County Border. This fire grew intensely after days of fierce 20 mph winds and soaring 80 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, which fueled the relentless blaze. On the morning of February 9, 2006, conditions worsened, and out of fear for the homes that sit only half a mile away in Anaheim Hills, nearly 75% of the Community of Anaheim Hills was under evacuation, some mandatory and some voluntary. This resulted in the closing of two local elementary schools for two full days, and several other schools served as shelters for the evacuees during the day.

On February 10, when Canyon Rim Elementary was the most threatened public structure, those students were moved to Canyon High School, which housed all the evacuated schools. The fire was soon put out, but it burned over 10,000 acres of land and caused significant natural resource damage by burning a recovering Tecate cypress grove. It was later determined that a controlled blaze set by the Cleveland National Forest started the fire, and the National Forestry Service was forced to pay the large bill from the firefighting efforts.

Notable residents

• Carlos Cavazo, guitarist in Quiet Riot
• Schae Harrison, soap opera actress

External links

• "The Community of Anaheim Hills"
• Anaheim Hills Landslide Update