Water Gardens

Water Gardens covers 11.7 acres in east Fullerton, reached from a loop and six courts and lanes: Barrington Court, Haddonfield Loop, Pembroke Court, Wavertree Lane, Welldow Lane, Wellesley Court and Windsor Lane. The record holds 203 addresses on four parcels with 0.72 miles of private street. The city zones all 11.65 mapped acres R-3 Limited Density Multiple Family Residential under a Medium Density Residential general plan designation.

No hazard layer the city publishes reaches the boundary. The schools nearest belong to Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified: Topaz Elementary 0.33 miles out at 404 students, Ruby Drive Elementary 0.41 miles at 373, Sierra Vista Elementary 0.56 miles at 454, Kraemer Middle 0.86 miles at 889 and Valencia High 0.71 miles at 2,411. Mail goes to ZIP 92831.

The name is literal. Water Gardens is built around ponds and landscaped greenbelt, and the 200 units went up in 1974 on not quite twelve acres in northeast Fullerton, with the main address on Pembroke Court. It is a low rise, three story community with a pool and spa, and the walking paths between the buildings run alongside the water rather than along the parking.

It sits next to Cal State Fullerton, and the university explains the timing. The campus opened in 1957 as Orange County State College and moved onto its permanent home on State College Boulevard in 1963. Through the following decade the land around it filled with exactly this kind of housing, built for faculty, graduate students and young families who wanted to be within walking distance of a campus that was still growing.