Overview
About Columbus Square
Columbus Square holds 294 homes on 18 acres, laid out along 25 named streets and 1.38 miles of pavement, which is more street names than all but one of the fifty Tustin communities here. The homes stand together on 52 parcels rather than on a lot each.
Veterans Sports Park at Tustin Legacy, 31.8 acres on Valencia Avenue and the largest park the city runs, begins 568 feet from the boundary. Tustin Unified serves the neighborhood, with Heritage Elementary 0.2 miles out, and the whole of it votes in City Council District 4.
View available homes in Columbus SquareHistory
How Columbus Square was built
Columbus Square is built on a runway. Until 1999 this was Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, and before that Naval Air Station Santa Ana, laid out starting on 1 April 1942 and opened that October as a base for blimps flying anti-submarine patrols off the California coast. The two hangars the Navy put up to shelter those airships were framed in Oregon Douglas fir; the surviving south hangar is 1,072 feet long, 292 feet wide and 192 feet tall, and the pair were among the largest free-standing wooden structures in the world.
Columbus Square was one of the first neighborhoods built on that ground. The City of Tustin records the master developer as Marble Mountain Partners, a joint venture of Lennar Homes and William Lyon, with individual sites sold on to other builders. It holds 1,075 homes between Edinger Avenue, Kensington Park Drive, Valencia Avenue and Severyns Road, of which 266, a quarter of the total, are restricted to very low, low and moderate income households. The north hangar burned down on 7 November 2023; the south one still stands over the neighborhood.
By the Numbers
Columbus Square by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Columbus Square lifestyle
The city runs seventeen parks of its own. The largest is Veterans Sports Park at Tustin Legacy, 31.8 acres on Valencia Avenue with lighted ball diamonds and multi-use play fields, followed by Tustin Sports Park at 22 acres on Robinson Drive.
Citrus Ranch Park holds 16.9 acres off Portola Parkway, where the city keeps a hilltop gazebo and a lemon grove knoll. Cedar Grove Park on Pioneer Road covers 10.7 acres and carries a nature trail and a grass amphitheater.
Old Town repays a walk. The sidewalk tour along Main Street and its side trips runs a little over two miles past buildings that go back to the 1880s, and the Tustin Area Historical Society keeps its museum at 395 El Camino Real.
Schools
Schools serving Columbus Square
Tustin Unified serves Columbus Square. Heritage Elementary stands 0.2 miles from the boundary and W. R. Nelson Elementary 0.7 miles, with Tustin High 1.5 miles out. The district assigns a campus by address rather than by distance.
9-12 · 2,776 students
9-12 · 2,126 students
9-12 · 1,627 students
6-12 · 964 students
9-12 · 142 students
6-8 · 971 students
6-8 · 929 students
6-8 · 583 students
6-8 · 554 students
K-8 · 1,373 students
K-8 · 1,085 students
K-5 · 830 students
K-5 · 613 students
K-5 · 585 students
K-5 · 567 students
K-5 · 542 students
K-5 · 520 students
K-5 · 502 students
K-5 · 460 students
K-5 · 456 students
K-5 · 436 students
K-5 · 433 students
K-5 · 426 students
K-5 · 399 students
K-5 · 395 students
K-5 · 345 students
K-5 · 313 students
K-12 · 268 students
FAQs
Common questions about Columbus Square
How big is Columbus Square?
Columbus Square covers 18 acres of Tustin and holds 294 homes on the city's address record, across 52 parcels and 1.38 miles of street.
What was here before Columbus Square?
Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, commissioned on 1 October 1942 as a blimp base and closed on 3 July 1999. The city has led the redevelopment of that ground as Tustin Legacy since annexing the base in 1976.
When was Columbus Square recorded?
Tract 16857 was recorded on 18 July 2005 by Tait and Associates under surveyor Michael Simon PLS 6034, and Tract 16581 followed on 6 March 2006.
Which school district serves Columbus Square?
Tustin Unified. Heritage Elementary is 0.2 miles from the boundary, though the district assigns campuses by address rather than by distance.
Is there a park at Columbus Square?
Veterans Sports Park at Tustin Legacy, 31.8 acres on Valencia Avenue and the largest park in the city system, begins 568 feet from the boundary.