Overview
About Laguna Terrace
Laguna Terrace is the largest detached community in the northern part of Laguna Hills, 117.1 acres holding 465 homes across 484 recorded parcels, on streets almost entirely named for Italian towns: Ancona, Barbera, Catania, Cremona, Genova, Lipari and thirty more.
Lots run to a median of 0.13 acres and the median living area on the city's parcel record is 1,366 square feet, with three bedrooms the median count. Fifty parcels carry a private pool and twenty-eight carry a view code. The Orange County Fire Authority places the boundary in evacuation zone LGH05, which covers 1,318 households, and Laguna Terrace lies inside Saddleback Valley Unified School District, whose campuses inside the Laguna Hills city limit are Valencia, Lomarena and San Joaquin elementaries and Laguna Hills High.
View available homes in Laguna TerraceHistory
How Laguna Terrace was built
The building years here are 1970 and 1971 for most of the 465 homes, which makes this one of the oldest big subdivisions in the city and twenty one years older than the city itself. Ross Cortese had already bought a piece of the Moulton Ranch in 1962 and opened Leisure World up the road in 1964, so the name Laguna Hills was in use before any of these families arrived. Eighty six percent of residents voted for cityhood on 5 March 1991, and Laguna Hills became a city on 20 December 1991. North Laguna Hills, which is where the city files this community, was annexed on 1 July 1996.
What makes Laguna Terrace immediately recognizable is that the street signs are a map of Italy. Verona, Torino, Milano, Napoli, Genova, Padova, Messina, Catania, Cremona, Rimini, Treviso, Savona, Taranto, Terni, Pesaro, Ancona, Modina, Montova, Lipari, Marsala, San Remo and Soresina all appear inside one neighborhood, joined by Bianco for white and Barbera, which is a Piedmont wine grape. Thirty two streets, almost all of them Italian, on a hillside in Orange County. The houses are modest by later standards, around 1,366 square feet and three bedrooms, on lots of roughly an eighth of an acre.
By the Numbers
Laguna Terrace by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Laguna Terrace lifestyle
The city publishes eight named trails and gives each its own mileage. Aliso Creek Trail runs 2.0 miles inside the city limit as a county maintained national recreation trail, open to walkers, cyclists and riders on horseback. Alicia Trail is a paved 1.33 miles from Moulton Parkway and Alicia Parkway northeast to the Laguna Hills Community Center.
Oso Parkway carries a trail on each side. The Oso Bikeway Trail is 1.64 paved miles along the north side from Moulton to Cabot Road, and the Oso Multi-Use Trail is 1.79 dirt miles along the south side open to every user. The Nellie Gail Trail adds 0.90 dirt miles from Ramona Street to La Paz Road, and the Veeh Trail follows 0.26 riparian miles beside Veeh Ranch Park.
Fossil Reef Park is built on a limestone reef the city dates to roughly 17 million years ago, when much of Orange County lay under a shallow tropical bay. The reef runs six miles long and 300 feet deep and holds scallop shells the city describes as the size of dinner plates.
Schools
Schools serving Laguna Terrace
Laguna Terrace lies inside Saddleback Valley Unified School District. The campuses below are the district schools inside the Laguna Hills city limit, with the enrollment the federal count records for each.
9-12 · 1,317 students
K-6 · 525 students
K-6 · 487 students
K-6 · 221 students
FAQs
Common questions about Laguna Terrace
How big is Laguna Terrace?
Laguna Terrace covers 117.1 acres on the boundary the City of Laguna Hills publishes, and the city's own count gives it 465 detached homes across 484 recorded parcels.
How big are the homes and lots?
The median lot on the city's parcel record measures 0.13 acres and the median living area on that record is 1,366 square feet, with three bedrooms the median count. Fifty parcels carry a private pool and twenty-eight carry a view code.
Which school district serves Laguna Terrace?
Laguna Terrace lies inside Saddleback Valley Unified School District. The district publishes no attendance boundary map, so assignment for a specific address is confirmed through the district's own locator. Its campuses inside the Laguna Hills city limit are Valencia Elementary with 525 students, Lomarena Elementary with 487, San Joaquin Elementary with 221 and Laguna Hills High with 1,317, on the 2024-25 federal count.
When was Laguna Terrace built?
Orange County recorded Tract 7371 and Tract 7311 over this ground in 1971, both surveyed by Donald L. Van Bogart. The parcels carrying a build year on the city's record went up between 1970 and 1997, with a median of 1971, and the 1971 maps beneath them are the earliest principal filings of any community in this section.
Why are the streets named for Italian towns?
The street names the city's address layer records inside the boundary run Ancona, Barbera, Catania, Cremona, Genova, Lipari and on through thirty-two in all, almost every one an Italian place name. The naming was set on the 1971 tract maps.