Overview
About Mesa Verde
Mesa Verde was built as a country club community and still reads as one. The private course at its center measures 144 acres on the city's park layer and 159 acres on its general plan land use layer, and Costa Mesa places it in a golf course designation alongside Santa Ana Country Club and the city owned Costa Mesa Golf Course, which covers 242 acres at 1701 Golf Course Drive. The General Plan puts the neighborhood's higher density housing along Mesa Verde Drive East.
Mesa Verde Park covers 4.6 acres at 1795 Samar Drive, and the city records a school site of 10 acres at 2990 Mesa Verde Drive under the same name. Citywide Costa Mesa publishes 41 named park and open space polygons, the largest Fairview Park at 219 acres. Newport-Mesa Unified School District runs every public campus in Costa Mesa, 20 of them on the 2024-25 federal count with 9,235 students between them, and the assigned campus follows the address.
View available homes in Mesa VerdeHistory
How Mesa Verde was built
Mesa Verde is the west shoulder of the tableland, running down to the Santa Ana River, and it stayed in beans and row crops long after the rest of Costa Mesa had houses on it. The name is Spanish for green table, which is what the bluff looks like from the riverbed. The neighborhood only really began in the late 1950s, and it was sold from the start as a golf course community rather than as a subdivision with a course attached.
The Mesa Verde Country Club held a three day opening over the weekend of 16 to 18 January 1959. William P. Bell Jr. laid out the 150 acre, par 71 course, and it had been meant to be a public one until demand for memberships was so heavy that the owners closed it. Dues ran ninety dollars a year and members paid a dollar fifty to play on a weekday. The city annexed the course in February 1959, a month after it opened. Orange Coast College took it as its home course within the month, and Santa Ana College and Newport Harbor High School followed. The clubhouse took another year, the winter rains found every drainage fault in the ground, and the grass had to be put in four times before it held.
By the Numbers
Mesa Verde by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Mesa Verde lifestyle
Golf is the anchor. Mesa Verde Country Club covers 144 acres on the city's record and is one of two private clubs in Costa Mesa. The city owns a third course of its own at 1701 Golf Course Drive.
Mesa Verde Park covers 4.6 acres at 1795 Samar Drive, and Adams Elementary sits nearby at 2850 Clubhouse Road on a 10 acre site.
Schools
Schools serving Mesa Verde
Newport-Mesa Unified School District runs every public campus in Costa Mesa. The campuses below are the 20 the 2024-25 federal count places inside the city, enrolling 9,235 students between them. Assignment is set by address, so confirm a specific address with the district.
7-12 · 1,730 students
9-12 · 976 students
9-12 · 177 students
9-12 · 143 students
7-12 · 48 students
7-8 · 501 students
K-6 · 570 students
3-6 · 539 students
K-2 · 487 students
K-6 · 473 students
K-6 · 473 students
K-6 · 454 students
K-6 · 373 students
K-6 · 371 students
K-6 · 367 students
K-6 · 344 students
K-6 · 323 students
K-6 · 321 students
K-6 · 301 students
K-6 · 264 students
FAQs
Common questions about Mesa Verde
When was Mesa Verde built?
From 1959. Mesa Verde Country Club opened over the weekend of 16 to 18 January 1959 and the housing tract was built in tandem with it, the two advertised together as a country club community. The course was annexed into Costa Mesa the following month.
Is the Mesa Verde golf course public?
No. It had been intended to open to the public and went private instead because membership demand was so great in its first weeks. Costa Mesa's General Plan lists it in the golf course designation with Santa Ana Country Club, both private, alongside the city owned Costa Mesa Golf Course and Country Club at 1701 Golf Course Drive, which covers 242 acres.
How big is the Mesa Verde course?
The city records the golf course polygon at 144 acres and gives the Mesa Verde Country Club site 159 acres on its general plan land use layer. When it opened in 1959 it was described as a par 71 course of 150 acres, designed by William P. Bell Jr.
What parks and schools are inside Mesa Verde?
Mesa Verde Park covers 4.6 acres at 1795 Samar Drive, and the city records a school site of 10 acres at 2990 Mesa Verde Drive under the Mesa Verde name. The General Plan places the neighborhood's higher density housing along Mesa Verde Drive East.
Which schools serve Mesa Verde?
Newport-Mesa Unified School District. The 2024-25 federal count places 20 of its campuses inside Costa Mesa, enrolling 9,235 students between them, from Costa Mesa High at 1,730 and Estancia High at 976 down through Charles W. Tewinkle Middle at 501 to the elementary campuses. Assignment is set by address, so confirm a specific address with the district.