Overview
About Balboa Nyes
Balboa and Nyes occupy the hillside behind Nyes Place, on Nyes, Balboa, Santa Ana, Tia Juana, Acapulco, Quivera, Del Mar, Bolsana Drive and Solana Way. The city draws the area as evacuation zone 2 and records 553 households inside it. Across 146 acres the assessor counts 651 parcels on forty-three named streets, and the city zones 617 of its 645 parcels R1. Nyes Place is the point where South Coast Highway becomes simply Coast Highway on the city's street signs.
Moulton Meadows Park sits at Balboa and Capistrano with two lighted tennis courts, two half basketball courts, a soccer field, a fitness circuit, a playground, a fenced dog play area and a hiking trailhead onto the paved fire road that runs across to Top of the World. Forty-four acres inside the boundary are open space preserve and eight more belong to Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, with 1.38 miles of city trail in thirty-one public segments, the most city trail of any named area. Laguna Beach Unified serves it from four campuses and 2,291 students.
View available homes in Balboa NyesHistory
How Balboa Nyes was built
The boom town at Diamond Street just north of here collapsed in the 1890s, and the Arch Beach name faded with it. The stretch of coast it had covered is known as Woods Cove today.
Coast Highway reached Laguna in 1926. That same year the sixty foot Norman tower went up at a Victoria Beach home, built as a private stair down the cliff to the sand. Down at the water, the Treasure Island trailer park grew from thirty trailers to two hundred by 1939 and was taking up to six thousand trailers a year by 1947, until it closed in the 1990s and the Montage took its place.
By the Numbers
Balboa Nyes by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Balboa Nyes lifestyle
Laguna Beach occupies 8.84 square miles with a population of about 23,000 and roughly six million visitors a year on the city's own count, and provides its own police, fire and marine safety protection.
Beaches north of Aliso Creek close between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.; beaches south of the creek close between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.; Thousand Steps Beach closes between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The city permits surfing at Agate, Brooks, Rockpile and Thalia Street beaches. Smoking fines on city beaches, parks and trails run $100, then $200, then $500 within twelve months.
Schools
Schools serving Balboa Nyes
Laguna Beach Unified serves Balboa Nyes along with the rest of the city, from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Attendance is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current assignment for a specific address with the district before relying on it.
K-5 · 404 students
K-5 · 536 students
6-8 · 524 students
9-12 · 815 students
FAQs
Common questions about Balboa Nyes
How big is the Balboa and Nyes area and how is it laid out?
The city's published boundary encloses 146 acres, drawn as evacuation zone 2, with 553 households on the city record. The assessor counts 651 parcels on forty-three named streets on the hillside behind Nyes Place, among them Balboa, Santa Ana, Tia Juana, Acapulco, Quivera and Solana Way. The city zones 617 of its 645 parcels R1.
Which schools serve this area?
Laguna Beach Unified serves the whole city from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Elementary assignment is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current one for a specific address with the district office.
When was it built?
Mostly in the 1970s. The first map over the hillside was recorded in 1964 and the second in 1966, with only two more filed since, in 1982 and 2001. Two thirds of the dated structures inside the boundary went up in the 1970s alone and only about one in twenty predates 1950, which makes this among the youngest housing in Laguna Beach.
What is at Moulton Meadows Park?
Two lighted tennis courts, two half basketball courts, a soccer field, a fitness circuit, five barbecues, restrooms and a playground with climbing equipment, climbing nets, a climbing boulder and swings, plus an adjacent tetherball court. It also has a fenced dog play area, open every day except Thursday from 6:00 a.m. until dusk, and a hiking trailhead onto the paved fire road that connects across to Top of the World.
Why do so many addresses say Arch Beach Heights?
Because the 1911 Arch Beach Heights subdivision map reaches across this hillside. The assessor files 369 parcels here under that name, and the Arch Beach Heights Specific Plan, which takes its boundary from the same 1911 map, covers about a quarter of the area. Check which plan and zone apply to a specific lot with the city's Community Development counter.