As the landscape has changed, the vision that guides its use has not.
The story of the Villages of Irvine actually begins more than a century ago.
In 1864, James Irvine and two partners purchased 120,000 acres stretching 22 miles inland from Newport Beach to the edge of the Cleveland National Forest. Encompassing more than 185 square miles assembled through Mexican and Spanish land grants, the original ranch was nearly one-quarter of Orange County's total land area. Irvine bought out his partners in 1876.
Cattle, sheep and horses once grazed on the land that was to become known as The Irvine Ranch®. In 1886, when the senior James Irvine died, his son, James Irvine II, took over operations of the Ranch and began the transition from ranching to farming. He built an agricultural empire from crops including lima beans, black-eyed peas, sugar beets, walnuts, avocados, strawberries, lemons and oranges. In 1894 he incorporated the land holdings as The Irvine Company.
For decades, much of the ranch was used for agriculture and grazing. As urbanization continued to move south from Los Angeles County in the early 1960s, The Irvine Company resisted pressures to sell off the ranch piecemeal to developers. Instead, the company's board of directors made a historic decision to draft a sophisticated Master Plan that would guide the orderly development of the company’s holdings.
The plan called for a balance of land uses to support economic growth and promote quality of life, including a variety of housing types, job centers, shopping centers, generous recreation and abundant open space. Planners further anticipated the need to add sufficient schools, churches, parks, roads, and utilities to serve the communities’ residents.
While much of the agricultural land has transitioned into well-balanced communities known as the Villages of Irvine, retail and commercial centers and excellent schools along with parks and open space, agriculture remains as a reminder of earlier days. In fact, The Irvine Ranch is still one of the largest providers of avocados in the country.
The land is now considered one of the largest and most successful master-planned urban environments in the United States.
Since 1864 through today, The Irvine Company considers the land to be a precious and non-renewable resource, an asset not to be sold or squandered for short-term gain, but to be held onto and used in ways that are carefully planned to benefit those who choose to live and work here.
For more information on the history of the City of Irvine and The Irvine Company, visit http://www.goodplanning.org/.
