Overview
About Lemon Heights
This is the City of Orange plan area named Lemon Heights, 41 acres inside the city limit holding 76 addresses across four streets, Calle Alta, Calle Baja, Calle Grande and La Cumbre. The lots are among the largest in the city, 36 acres zoned single family on 20,000 square feet and 5 more on 40,000, with a median parcel of 0.316 acres. The original maps dedicated Orange Hill Road, Orange Hill Terrace, La Cumbre Drive, La Cumbre Court and Calle Grande to the public, and set aside non buildable lots for recreational use.
Nine of the 41 acres are designated open space in the general plan and just under half a mile of the city's recreation trail network runs inside the boundary. Santiago Oaks Regional Park lies 2,969 feet away, 136 acres of county land with hiking and equestrian trails, a nature center and a playground. None of the addresses carries a unit designator, so the housing is detached, and every parcel is assigned to Chapman Hills Elementary, Santiago Charter Middle and El Modena High.
View available homes in Lemon HeightsHistory
How Lemon Heights was built
The name is literal, and it was earned on the ridge two miles south of here. In 1910 two Tustin businessmen, C.E. Utt and Sherman Stevens, bought 600 acres of that hillside and planted citrus on it, a good deal of it lemons, and the heights took the name of the crop. Other growers followed on that slope, among them Robert M. Simons with ninety acres of mixed citrus and Dr Wilella Waffle with thirty acres of lemons. George E. Marcy, a Chicago businessman who eventually held some 17,000 acres in the area, wanted to turn that hill into a residential park on the model of Smiley Heights in Redlands, and in 1921 the county historian Samuel Armor was already predicting that palatial houses would be built up there.
This particular pocket was cut out of the 1928 Orange Park Acres subdivision about fifty years later, in the late 1970s, by a joint venture that took the Lemon Heights name for itself. Several of the lots were set aside as unbuildable except for recreation, and one was given outright to the City of Orange for waterworks. Title runs back through the allotment made to Nieves Lopez de Peralta when Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana was partitioned in 1868, which is as far back as ownership here goes in writing.
By the Numbers
Lemon Heights by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Lemon Heights lifestyle
Beyond the city's own parks, Santiago Oaks Regional Park begins 2,969 feet away and covers 136 acres in the county's park layer, which records basketball courts, bird watching, equestrian trails and hiking trails.
Clipped to this boundary, the city's trail layers return 0.45 miles of recreation trail.
Schools
Schools serving Lemon Heights
Orange publishes the assigned school on every parcel in the city, which means the campuses below are the ones the city itself sends this boundary to rather than the ones that happen to be nearest. The city's parcel record assigns every parcel here to Chapman Hills Elementary for elementary, every parcel here to Santiago Charter Middle for middle and every parcel here to El Modena High for high. Enrollment is the 2024-25 federal count.
9-12 · 1,795 students
7-8 · 1,137 students
K-6 · 321 students
FAQs
Common questions about Lemon Heights
Who developed Lemon Heights?
A joint venture registered under the name Lemon Heights, made up of J. A. Stewart Construction Company and John Lyttle Developments, Incorporated. It recorded the main tract in July 1977, and the final three lot unit was recorded in October 1978 under the name Homes by John Lyttle.
Where is Lemon Heights in Orange?
It is a 41 acre plan area inside the Orange city limit holding four streets, Calle Alta, Calle Baja, Calle Grande and La Cumbre, southeast of Newport and Chapman. The city files it in its plan area register as PUD 801-77 Lemon Heights.
What was here before?
Part of Orange Park Acres. The 1978 tract map describes the land as lots 2 and 3 and Lot K of Tract 918, the Orange Park Acres subdivision recorded in 1928, and the title runs back to the allotment to Nieves Lopez de Peralta in the 1868 partition of Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana.
How big are the lots in Lemon Heights?
The median parcel measures 0.316 acres on the city's own parcel geometry. Thirty six acres are zoned Single Family Res. 20000 sq ft and 5 acres Single Family Res. 40000 sq ft, with 9 acres designated open space in the general plan and several lots recorded as non buildable except for recreational use.
Which schools serve Lemon Heights?
Orange publishes an assigned school on every parcel, and all 83 parcels here are assigned to Chapman Hills Elementary, which enrolled 321 students on the 2024-25 federal count, Santiago Charter Middle at 1,137 and El Modena High at 1,795.