OC Begins To Look Denser and More Walkable
- Larry Sokoloff
- Feb 11, 2024
- 5 min read
When Orange County went through its first wave of suburban growth in the 1950s, developers reveled in endless agricultural land to accommodate all its new houses, shopping centers, offices, and parking lots.
Seventy years later that land, like many other areas of coastal California, is built out. Orange County’s cities have to increase density and rely on infill development for new growth. Its two largest cities – Anaheim and Santa Ana – are leading the way with two projects suggesting that a region associated with auto-centric sprawl is headed towards denser, walkable mixed-use development.
The upcoming infill projects involve reclaiming areas with large parking lots and using that land for denser projects, typically including multi-story structures.
A prime example of this is under development in Anaheim, in an area notable for its ocean of parking lots.
Attempts to redevelop land immediately surrounding Angel Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Angels baseball team, fell flat in May 2022, when a scandal related to the city’s sale of the stadium to the Angels was uncovered. The sale was canceled, and former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu resigned and pled guilty to fraud.
