Overview
About Wesley
Wesley covers the South Laguna slope inland of Coast Highway around Wesley Drive, on Marilyn Drive, Terry Road, Driftwood Drive, Alexander Road, Ashton Drive, Ocean Vista Drive, Aliso Circle and Rounsevel Terrace. The city draws it as evacuation zone 20 and records 856 households inside it, the second largest household count in the city. Across 141 acres the assessor counts 313 parcels on seventeen named streets, and the zoning is mixed: 173 parcels in R1, 60 in R2 and 20 in a neighborhood commercial category.
Forty-one of the 141 acres fall inside the mapped coastal zone. The city's Community and Recreation Center at 30516 South Coast Highway sits inside the boundary with an indoor gymnasium, full-court basketball, indoor pickleball and volleyball, a grass field, a playground, skate ramps and forty parking spaces, and Lang Park on Wesley Drive adds a dual-line tennis and pickleball court, a soccer field and a playground. Laguna Beach Unified serves the slope from four campuses and 2,291 students.
View available homes in WesleyHistory
How Wesley was built
This one is named after a grocer. George Wesley Wilson was born in Missouri on 1 April 1889 and came to Laguna Beach in 1920. In 1922 he built the Aliso View Grocery beside what was then a dirt Pacific Coast Highway, on the ground where the Montage resort stands today, and ran it with his wife Grace. He also ran the camping area at Aliso Beach, which held roughly eight hundred campsites during the hoof and mouth quarantine of 1924, worked as a master carpenter building houses across Laguna Beach and Orange County, and sat on the city council in 1934. Wesley Drive is named for him, and so is Wilson Street in town.
The Wilsons lived the way South Laguna lived then. Their children Howard and Louise walked four miles to a one room schoolhouse. Wilson eventually moved to Costa Mesa when Laguna got too expensive, which is a complaint with a longer history here than most people assume.
By the Numbers
Wesley by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Wesley 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 Wesley
Laguna Beach Unified serves Wesley 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 Wesley
How big is Wesley and how is it laid out?
The city's published boundary encloses 141 acres, drawn as evacuation zone 20, with 856 households on the city record, the second largest household count in Laguna Beach. The assessor counts 313 parcels on seventeen named streets on the South Laguna slope inland of Coast Highway, among them Wesley Drive, Marilyn Drive, Terry Road, Driftwood Drive and Alexander Road.
Which schools serve Wesley?
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 Wesley built?
S. H. Finley recorded the Arch Beach Heights Addition over the slope in 1911 and Frank P. Gowan added a tract in 1928, with eight more filed between 1952 and 1983. Building came mostly after the war: a third of the structures predate 1950 and the 1950s produced more of them than any other decade.
What recreation is inside the boundary?
The city's Community and Recreation Center at 30516 South Coast Highway, with an indoor gymnasium, full-court basketball, full and half court volleyball, indoor pickleball, a grass field, a playground, skate ramps and forty parking spaces. Drop-in pickleball runs Monday mornings, basketball on Wednesday evenings and Saturdays, and volleyball on Saturday afternoons. Lang Park at 21540 Wesley Drive adds a dual-line tennis and pickleball court, a half basketball court, a soccer field, a playground and restrooms.
Why do addresses here say Arch Beach Heights?
Because S. H. Finley's 1911 Arch Beach Heights Addition is the map this slope was laid out on. The assessor files 128 parcels under that name, and the city's Historic Resources Inventory files all eight of the resources inside the boundary under the same label. Confirm the recorded map and any restrictions attached to it for a specific parcel before relying on them.