Coto de Caza

The land was originally part of Rancho Mission Viejo. The project began in 1968, when it was imagined as a hunting lodge, which is now the Lodge at Coto de Caza. The suburban community that grew around it was a joint venture of Chevron and Arvida, and development was first started in 1964. In 1979 Arvida bought out Chevron. Richard Boultinghouse, who had built McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona, was hired as president and general manager, and was later replaced by John C Yelverton.

Orange County approved the master plan in 1983, for a community of about 5,000 homes. Three years later the community officially opened. In 1984, Arvida, Disney, Chevron and City Federal Savings & Loan had partnered on the development. The community was completed in 2003.

The land that became Coto de Caza was originally part of Rancho Mission Viejo, which took shape from land grants to John Forster in 1845. After Forster died in 1882, Richard O'Neill Sr. and James Flood took over the ranches. O'Neill was the working partner, a cattleman, and under him the ranch became the largest wheat producer in Orange County. When the ranch was split in 1939, Richard O'Neill Jr. kept the Orange County half, and after the war what remained was 52,000 acres. The family has since preserved more than 20,000 acres of open space.

Rancho Mission Viejo is also one of two century-old ranches that still own parts of the Santa Ana Mountains, along with the Irvine Ranch. The range runs about 61 miles southeast of the Los Angeles Basin, largely along the line between Orange and Riverside counties. Santiago Peak, at 5,689 feet, is its highest summit, and with Modjeska Peak it forms Saddleback Ridge. Gaspar de Portolá's expedition named the mountains after camping below them on July 26, 1769, the Feast Day of Saint Anne. Much of the range lies in the Trabuco Ranger District of the Cleveland National Forest, and its wildlife includes mountain lions, mule deer, bobcats and coyotes.

Early on, Coto de Caza built a reputation as an ecologically minded recreation community. It had Vic Braden's Tennis College and a 36-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. In 1996 Lennar took over as development manager and pushed the project toward more luxurious homes at lower densities, as the region recovered from a recession.

Prices moved fast. The average home in Coto de Caza cost $375,000 in 1996, $840,000 in 2000, and well over a million dollars after that. The 2023 estimate for median household income was $232,470, and 91.2% of occupied homes were owner-occupied in 2020.

For the 1984 Summer Olympics, the community hosted the riding, running, shooting and fencing parts of the modern pentathlon. Princess Anne of the United Kingdom attended to support Richard Phelps, who finished fourth.

Television came later. Coto de Caza was the original setting of the Bravo series The Real Housewives of Orange County, though the show has since spread to other places such as Newport Beach.

The Thomas F. Riley Wilderness Park surrounds the community on its eastern, northern and southern borders. It is open to the general public and is a wildlife and plant sanctuary. Its nature center runs outdoor education for local schools and community groups, and the park serves as a preserve for native endangered plants and animals. Orange County Parks maintains it, with park rangers and maintenance staff.

Residents shop in Rancho Santa Margarita, Mission Viejo, Las Flores or Ladera Ranch. Most students live in the Capistrano Unified School District and attend Tijeras Creek Elementary, Wagon Wheel Elementary, Las Flores Middle School and Tesoro High School. Santa Margarita Catholic High School, which is at the North Gate and not part of Capistrano Unified, is another choice. St. John's Episcopal School and St. Junipero Serra Catholic School are private schools outside the gates in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Residents once turned down a plan to put a 400-student public school inside the walls. They said it would undermine privacy and security and would force the community to admit many non-residents. The proposal came about because Wagon Wheel Elementary, just outside the gates, had far more students than planned. The plan called for 20 portable buildings, and the school would have been the first public school inside a gated community.

Las Flores, the unincorporated community just south of Coto de Caza, is where many Coto students go to school. Tesoro High School and Las Flores Middle School are there, and so is Wagon Wheel Elementary, the school just outside the gates, which the Capistrano Unified district list places in Las Flores. Las Flores had 5,995 residents at the 2020 census across 2.6 square miles, and it shares ZIP Code 92688 with Rancho Santa Margarita.

Capistrano Unified formed in 1965, covers 195 square miles, and is the largest school district in Orange County. Besides Coto de Caza it serves the unincorporated communities of Las Flores, Ladera Ranch and Rancho Mission Viejo, and all of Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. Tesoro High School is a California Distinguished School.

The 2020 census counted 14,710 people in 4,876 households. The median age was 46.6 years, and 15.8% of residents were 65 or older. Married couples made up 77.3% of households, and the average household had 3.02 people. In 2010 the population was 14,866.

The area is patrolled by the California Highway Patrol, the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the community's own security force.

The community has gotten older. In 2010 it had 14,866 people in 4,736 households, the median age was 42.2, and 50.8% of households had children under 18. By 2020 the population was 14,710 in 4,876 households, the median age was 46.6, and the share of households with children had dropped to 36.9%. Owner-occupied homes were 91.7% of the total in 2010 and 91.2% in 2020, and the 2020 census counted 4,992 housing units, of which 97.7% were occupied.

Median household income was $169,176 in 2010 and $232,470 in the 2023 estimate, and per capita income in 2023 was $103,122. The 2020 population density was 1,885.9 people per square mile. Coto de Caza has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate. It first appeared as a census-designated place in 1990, and before that the area was counted as part of the Trabuco census county division, which had 70,221 people in 1980.