MISSION VIEJO CA
Date: 09/26/2015
Mission Viejo is an affluent city located in southern Orange County, California, U.S. in the Saddleback Valley. Mission Viejo is considered one of the largest master-planned communities ever built under a single project in the United States, and is rivaled only by Highlands Ranch, Colorado, in its size. The city has a 2011 estimated population of 96,346.
Mission Viejo is suburban in nature and culture. The city is mainly residential, although there are a number of offices and businesses within its city limits. The city is known for its picturesque tree-lined neighborhoods, receiving recognition from the National Arbor Day Foundation. The city's name is a reference to Rancho Mission Viejo, a large Spanish land grant from which the community was founded.
Mission Viejo was named the safest city in the United States by the Morgan Quitno crime statistic survey (compiled from FBI data). The city was also ranked safest in California and third in the nation by CQ Press.
History
Mission Viejo was purchased by John Forster, a Mexican also known as Don Juan.[citation needed] During the Mexican-American War, Forster provided fresh horses to United States military forces which were used on the march of San Diego to retake Los Angeles.
Mission Viejo was a hilly region primarily used as cattle and sheep grazing land, since it was of little use to farmers. This city was one of the last regions of Orange County to be urbanized due to its geologic complexity. In 1960, early developers dismissed most of the land in Mission Viejo as simply "undevelopable".
Donald Bren, an urban planner who later became the president of the Irvine Company, drafted a master plan which placed roads in the valleys and houses on the hills, and contoured to the geography of the area. The plan worked, and by 1980 much of the city of Mission Viejo was completed. During the late 1970s and the 1980s, houses in Mission Viejo were in such high demand that housing tracts often sold out before construction even began on them. The houses and shopping centers in the city are almost uniformly designed in a Spanish mission style, with "adobe"-like stucco walls and barrel-tile roofs. Many point to Mission Viejo as the first and largest manifestation of Bren's obsession with Spanish architecture. Bren's company was also the creator of the developments in Irvine, and Newport Beach suburbs. The company expanded its operations and went on to build the Lakes project in Tempe Arizona, Mission Viejo Aurora in Colorado and was the initial master planner of Highlands Ranch, both in the Denver Metropolitan area.
The seal of the city of Mission Viejo was designed and drawn by Carl Glassford, an artist and former resident of the city.
Geography
Mission Viejo is located at 33%uFFFD36'46?N 117%uFFFD39'22?W? / ?33.61278%uFFFDN 117.65611%uFFFDW (33.612739, -117.656038).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.1 square miles (47 km2). 17.7 square miles (46 km2) of it is land and 0.4 square miles (1.0 km2) of it (2.12%) is water. A significant portion of the surface water is held in Lake Mission Viejo, an artificial lake stretching approximately one mile from Olympiad Road to Alicia Parkway along Marguerite Parkway.
It is bordered by Lake Forest on the northwest, Trabuco Canyon on the northeast, Rancho Santa Margarita and Ladera Ranch on the east, San Juan Capistrano on the south, and Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills on the west.
Climate
Mission Viejo enjoys a borderline semi-arid/Mediterranean climate (K%uFFFDppen climate classification BSh/Csa), with mild temperatures and plentiful sunshine year-round. Rainfall totals, which average around 14 inches (355 millimetres) annually are focused primarily in the months from November to March. Summer is very dry and virtually rainless, however thunderstorms do rarely occur. Due to the city's proximity to the ocean, nighttime and morning clouds are fairly common, especially in the months of May and June, a weather phenomenon commonly known as June Gloom.
Like most of Southern California, the city is prone to dry Santa Ana winds, which bring hot air from inland and punctuate the normally mild temperatures with noticeable jumps. For example, temperatures have reached highs of 90 %uFFFDF (32 %uFFFDC) and above throughout many months of the year, occasionally into the autumn months. Snowfall within city limits is very rare, however the nearby Saddleback Mountains receive a dusting of snow every few winters.
| Climate data for Mission Viejo, California | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high %uFFFDF (%uFFFDC) | 68 (20) |
68 (20) |
69 (21) |
72 (22) |
73 (23) |
75 (24) |
79 (26) |
80 (27) |
80 (27) |
77 (25) |
72 (22) |
67 (19) |
73.3 (23) |
| Average low %uFFFDF (%uFFFDC) | 44 (7) |
45 (7) |
47 (8) |
50 (10) |
54 (12) |
58 (14) |
61 (16) |
60 (16) |
59 (15) |
54 (12) |
48 (9) |
43 (6) |
51.9 (11) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 2.85 (72.4) |
3.42 (86.9) |
1.96 (49.8) |
.88 (22.4) |
.25 (6.4) |
.11 (2.8) |
.06 (1.5) |
.03 (0.8) |
.25 (6.4) |
.65 (16.5) |
1.09 (27.7) |
2.38 (60.5) |
13.93 (353.8) |
| Source: Weather Channel | |||||||||||||
According to the City's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:
| # | Employer | # of employees |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saddleback College | 2,196 |
| 2 | Mission Hospital | 1,349 |
| 3 | Unisys | 1,000 |
| 4 | Quest Diagnostics | 500 |
| 5 | Coldwell Banker | 410 |
| 6 | Saddleback Valley Unified School District | 400 |
Marie Callender's has its corporate headquarters in the Marie Callender's Corporate Support Center in Mission Viejo.
Politics
Of the 56,286 registered voters in the city, 31,090 (55.2%) are Republicans, 14,319 (25.4%) are Democrats, 8,790 (15.6%) declined to state political affiliation, and the remaining 2,087 (3.8%) are registered with a minor party.
Mission Viejo is a general law city, which operates under a council-manager form of government. The Mission Viejo City Council consists of five members elected at-large to staggered four-year terms. Each year, the City Council elects a Mayor and a Mayor Pro Tem amongst themselves to serve for one calendar year. The Mayor, who has equal legislative power with fellow members of the City Council, serves as the ceremonial leader of the city and as the presiding officer of the bi-weekly City Council meetings. The current City Council, as of December 1, 2014, consists of:
- Cathy Schlicht, Mayor
- Greg Raths, Mayor Pro Tem
- Wendy Bucknum, Council Member
- Ed Sachs, Council Member
- Frank Ury, Council Member
In county government, Mission Viejo is located in the 5th District of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, currently represented by Lisa Bartlett.
In the California State Legislature, Mission Viejo is in the 36th Senate District, represented by Republican Patricia Bates, and in the 73rd Assembly District, represented by Republican Bill Brough.
Federally, most of Mission Viejo is located in California's 45th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R 8 and is represented by Republican Mimi Walters. A small area in the city's southern tip, which includes Saddleback College, is located in California's 49th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R 5 and is represented by Republican Darrell Issa.
Sports
Mission Viejo has a major youth athletic facility, Mission Viejo Youth Athletic Park. The park consists of eight baseball fields and five soccer fields. It is host to Little League District 68, AYSO Region 84, and four competitive soccer clubs: Pateadores Soccer Club, Mission Viejo Soccer Club, West Coast Futbol Club, and Saddleback United Soccer Club.
The Mission Viejo Nadadores Swimming and Mission Viejo Nadadores Diving Team won a string of national championships and produced a number of Olympians and world record holders in the 1970s and 1980s. Olympians included Shirley Babashoff, Brian Goodell, Larson Jenson, Maryanne Graham, Nicole Kramer, Casy Converse, Marcia Morey, Dara Torres, and Greg Louganis.
Mission Viejo hosted the Road Cycling Events during the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. The old O'Neill Road was renamed Olympiad Rd. in honor of the Olympic events in 1984.
There is also a soccer facility, now used by the town's youth soccer program, that was used as a training field by the United States men's national soccer team before and during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the United States. Mission Viejo is the largest AYSO Region in the country.
The Saddleback College ballpark hosted the Mission Viejo Vigilantes minor league baseball team of the Western Baseball League from 1996%uFFFD2001. Now the ballpark has a semi-pro collegiate team, the Orange County Fire.
Mission Viejo is also the hometown of NFL quarterback Mark S%uFFFDnchez, New York Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes, and Washington Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche, former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Don August, Saint Louis Cardinals outfielder Allen Craig, Top Shot Season 4 Champion Chris Cheng, and PBA Tour Champion Scott Norton.
