Living In A Master Planned Community

Irvine, California is an extremely sought-after community, ranked number four on CNN Money's list of Best Places to Live for 2008. The reason for its popularity is that it combines a low crime rate, great schools and job opportunities with the balmy weather California is known for. For many people living in condo real estate in Toronto a home in Irvine would be a dream come true. However, before joining the ranks of this community there are certain things you should know. Living in a master planned community isn't quite like living in another city that has been allowed to develop as it pleased, so to help you familiarize yourself we've created this guide.

The Irvine Company

The Irvine Company is a private real estate company with vast holdings in Southern California. Unlike homes in Brampton, which are usually grouped together into subdivisions engineered by different companies, in Irvine Company cities nothing can be done without first consulting the company. The company owns more than 94,000 acres in Orange County known as the Irvine Ranch, 44,000 of which are set aside for development while the rest forms nature preserves and parkland. The Irvine Company has near complete dominion over Irvine, California as well as Laguna Beach, Anaheim, Tustin, Orange and Newport Beach.

Master-Planned Cities

Master planned cities don't have the same helter-skelter look to them as cities that grew up normally. Each facet of their existence was carefully engineered for maximum aesthetic value, cohesiveness with its surroundings, and convenience to the people who would be living there. You don't see this kind of sameness anywhere else. In New York, for example, a chrome-and-glass Fishkill condos building could be built next to a brick office tower and a 1950s style elementary school. In Irvine, development is sectioned off into villages, each of which contain residential neighborhoods and the appropriate amenities, such as schools, shops, and police stations, all of which compliment one another, meaning wherever you live you'll have what you need close at hand.

The Design of Irvine

The layout of the city was created by architect William Pereira and Raymond Watson, of the Irvine Company. Pereira's original vision was for streets to radiate outward from the university at the center, but in the end they went with the university up against the southern hills and the rest of the town strung together like beads on a necklace. Each village is separated by six-lane streets and contains houses that match one another along with landscaped yards and parkways that give the city a greater feeling of spaciousness than even Roncesvalles homes have. The downshot of this is that it's easy to get lost when everything looks the same and half of the buildings are hidden by trees.

Homeowners Associations
Once you purchase your home in Irvine, you will find that you don't have as much control over it as you had in your old Tip Top loft apartment. The village homeowners' association exercises a great deal of control over what you're allowed to put in your yard, the maintenance and upkeep you have to put into it, whether you can made any additions to the home or property and even what colors you're allowed to paint it. Amenities in some villages such as swimming pools and parks are even restricted to members only, so in some cases you can only enjoy the parkland in your own neighborhood.