Las Palmas Hermosa

At the northern end of Southern California’s Orange County, rural-suburban Las Palmas Hermosa was where the modern-day city of Fullerton began – on 2,500 acres of sheep ranching and citrus farmland. “In the center of town here, you’ll still find the homestead of the once powerful Bastanchury family, the namesake of local Bastanchury Road,” says Realtor Melissa Yeo of Hawk & Dove Real Estate Group, “though the land around it has long since been redeveloped as housing, in both gated and ungated communities. You’ll find smaller homes in the Hermosa Flats, while in the Hermosa Heights area up near and above the Fullerton Golf Course, you’ll see mostly large midcentury ranch-style homes, with some two-story models." Yeo continues, “This was the first neighborhood in Fullerton to have buried electrical lines, and unlike most residential parts of the city, it has both streetlights and sidewalks.”

Right on state route 90, Las Palmas Hermosa gives you easy access to the 39, the 57 and the 5 freeway; Downtown Los Angeles is 25 miles north, and you’re roughly 20 miles from both Irvine and Huntington Beach.

In the Hermosa Heights area, you’ll find large midcentury ranch-style homes, sometimes fashioned like Spanish haciendas with clay-tiled roofs, on lots of up to a half-acre; with four or five bedrooms, three baths and a three-car garage, as well as an upgraded kitchen and a swimming pool, these homes range from $1.2 million to $2.3 million. By the golf course, the Fairway Village Gated Community has 24/7 security for its late 1970s to early ‘80s Spanish-style homes with up to four bedrooms and three baths, ranging from $880,000 to $1.1 million. In the Hermosa Flats, the late 1980s Sorrento Hills gated community has Spanish- and Craftsman-style homes with larger layouts and three-car garages that go for about $1.5 million; while along North La Brea Boulevard, '70s apartment-style condos average $550,000 for a 970-square-foot unit with two bedrooms and one bath. Throughout the neighborhood, the scenery vibes tranquil and rural, with hills, foothills and the occasional grove of eucalyptus and pepper trees providing some shade. Streets and cul-de-sacs are safe and generally quiet (close to the 90 you'll hear some traffic noise), lined with well-manicured yards and often studded with tall skinny palm trees. You'll see your neighbors out walking their dogs and themselves, as well as biking all over — and taking the time to wave hello.

Sprawling about 241 acres throughout the neighborhood, the public Brea Dam Recreational Area includes parks, trails and the campus of Providence St. Jude Medical Center. Yoru favorite kids will enjoy the heck out of the modern, colorful playground and three spectator-friendly baseball fields at the 17 ½-acre Fullerton Sports Complex; where on summertime Wednesday nights, you can gather with your neighbors to enjoy free concerts by area acts. From here you can pick up the half-mile, gently graded Lost Trail, which dead-ends at the 1 ½-mile Brea Dam Trail; you can follow the latter to the 18-hole, 67-par public golf course, the Fullerton Tennis Center (with classes for kids and adults) and the picnic areas at Brea Dam Park. If you’d like to pedal your way around Fullerton, don your helmet and hit the well-paved Puente Bike Trail.

You can do your local errands at two small shopping centers. Start your day with a pour-over coffee or nitro cold brew from an outpost of Bodhi Leaf Coffee Traders, an Orange County chain; fuel the afternoon with tacos, enchiladas or burritos from cheerful, family-owned Harbor Mexican Café; and for dinner, tuck into carpaccios and cut rolls at Ginza Sushi or house-made pasta at family-run Luigi’s D’Italia. You can fill up your grocery cart at the local Stater Bros., just northwest at Walmart or Aldi, and just south at Ralph’s. A few miles southwest you’ll find a bunch of bars and eateries in Fullerton’s lively downtown.

Many kids in Las Palmas Hermosa attend Fullerton public schools that are rated a just-above-average 6/10 by Great Schools, including GATE-designated Hermosa Drive Elementary. Ladera Vista Junior High School of the Arts features a “Triple Threat Program” of dance, choir and theatre, as well as a Spanish Dual Language track; while Fullerton Union High (go, Tribe!) offers a strong speech and debate team and the International Baccalaureate diploma, earning a 9/10 for its students’ college readiness.

For a well-established Orange County suburb with plenty of rural open space and good public schools, consider putting down roots in Fullerton’s safe, quiet Las Palmas Hermosa.

Written By

Melanie Wynne

Photography Contributed By

Tyler O'Neil

Video By

Stewart Taveras