Overview
About Blackstone
Blackstone is the largest community in Brea by area, 261.3 acres in the hills at the northern edge of the city, with 680 addresses and 799 parcels of which 776 are residential. Its 7.28 miles of street run through thirty-two named roads and the structures on its lots run to a median of 3,318 square feet with four bedrooms, on lots to a median of 0.143 acres. The general plan splits the ground three ways: 154.5 acres of Low Density Residential, 88.4 acres of Natural Open Space and 5.9 acres of Medium Density Residential.
Four works by the Southern California ceramicist Marlo Bartels stand inside the boundary, all installed in 2017 and all naming what the hills used to do: Production of Oil, Paleontological I, Paleontological II and Seed to Tree. The entire 261.3 acres falls in the Very High fire hazard severity class and the city's landslide layer covers 63.7 of them, the second largest landslide footprint among Brea's communities after Olinda Village. Both belong in an early conversation with an insurer and a geotechnical review. Blackstone is in Brea Olinda Unified, with Olinda Elementary 0.77 miles away holding 649 students and Brea Olinda High 0.86 miles with 1,676.
View available homes in BlackstoneHistory
How Blackstone was built
Housing came late and came from the oil companies themselves. Shea Homes and Standard Pacific built roughly 671 homes here between 2005 and 2015 on the Tonner Hills side of the old field, with the first models opening in March 2011 at the bottom of the housing market. The developers made a point of the methane control work, since a century of drilling leaves gas in the ground. Most of the homes went up between 2011 and 2014, the typical house measures about 3,300 square feet, and every acre of the community sits in the state's Very High fire hazard class.
The street names are a map of California's oil country. Coalinga, McKittrick, Kern River, Belridge, San Ardo, Signal Hill, Santa Paula, Piru, Bardsdale, Ojai and Pico Canyon are all oil fields, and Pico Canyon is the one where the first commercially successful well in the western United States came in on 26 September 1876. Aera Court is named for Aera Energy, the Shell and ExxonMobil venture that held this ground. Roughneck Place, Walking Beam Place and Shackle Line Drive are the trade's own vocabulary: a walking beam is the rocking arm on a pump, and a shackle line was the system of rods that let one central engine work a whole row of wells.
By the Numbers
Blackstone by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Blackstone lifestyle
Schools
Schools serving Blackstone
Blackstone sits inside Brea Olinda Unified. Olinda Elementary is 0.77 miles away, Brea Olinda High 0.86 miles and Brea Country Hills Elementary 0.8 miles, with Brea Junior High at 1.93 miles. Enrollment below is the 2024-25 federal count. Attendance boundaries set the assignment, so confirm a specific address with the district.
9-12 · 1,676 students
9-12 · 41 students
7-8 · 921 students
K-6 · 649 students
K-6 · 544 students
K-6 · 504 students
K-6 · 498 students
K-6 · 460 students
K-6 · 434 students
K-6 · 13 students
FAQs
Common questions about Blackstone
How big is Blackstone?
261.3 acres against the boundary the City of Brea publishes, which makes it the largest of the city's 43 mapped communities. It holds 680 addresses and 799 parcels, 776 of them residential, on 7.28 miles of street.
When was Blackstone built?
The County of Orange approved the Tonner Hills Planned Community on November 19, 2002, and Brea annexed the ground on December 12, 2005. The master map, Tract 16178, was recorded in 2003 by The Keith Companies, and RBF Consulting recorded the phases between 2009 and 2014. Shea Tonner Hills and Standard Pacific of Tonner Hills built them, and the parcel record dates the houses from 2010 to 2016.
What are the homes like?
Structures run to a median of 3,318 square feet with four bedrooms on lots to a median of 0.143 acres. The general plan carries 154.5 acres inside the boundary as Low Density Residential and 88.4 acres as Natural Open Space.
Why are the streets named Coalinga, McKittrick and Roughneck?
Blackstone was built on the Tonner Hills, part of the country that made Brea an oil town, on land Nuevo Energy owned. The street names are drawn from California oil fields and oil towns, among them Coalinga, McKittrick, Santa Paula, Kern River, Piru, Signal Hill and Pico Canyon, from oilfield terms including Walking Beam, Roughneck, Cable Canyon and Shackle Line, and from the companies themselves at Aera Court, Nuevo Place and Plains Court.
What should a buyer check about the hillside?
All 261.3 acres inside the boundary fall in the Very High fire hazard severity class on the map the City of Brea publishes, and the city's landslide layer covers 63.7 of them. Both belong in an early conversation with an insurer and a geotechnical review.