Last month, Cypress Village opened a new enclave with three new collections. The enclave is bordered by the 133 toll road on the west, Ridge Valley on the east, Trabuco on the north (Trabuco’s name changes to Great Park Road on the east side of Sand Canyon), and Marine Way on the south. One collection, Tristania, is supposed to have its grand opening on September 24. Residents will be part of the Cypress Village Community Association and have access to all of Cypress Village’s parks and pools.  Each collection will also have its own set of HOA dues.

Cypress Village is part of the Irvine Unified School District. Though these homes are located fairly near the brand new Beacon Park K-8 school, residents of this enclave will attend Cypress Village Elementary school. I find this somewhat problematic, as Cypress Village Elementary is already filled to capacity and turning away students. The neighborhood is also about 1.5 miles away from the school, meaning most (or all) families will drive, adding to an already heavily congested traffic area around the school known for having rather dangerous drivers. Older students will attend Jeffrey Trail Middle School and Irvine High School.

All three collections are built by California Pacific Homes. There are two neighborhoods of townhomes and one of detached courtyard homes. Below is a brief rundown of the collections, which I will review in detail over the next few weeks.

The new enclave has one large park in the center and a smaller one planned near the entrance to the neighborhood. Garden Center Park is the larger of the two and is central to the community. It includes a junior Olympic pool, spa, wading pool, club room, tot lot, barbecue and picnic areas, shade structures, and a great lawn. The playground looks fun, with two separate areas geared toward older and younger children. It has a garden theme, with cute paintings and a garden scavenger hunt that encourages kids to look for different things throughout the park.  A sandbox with several diggers sits between the two playgrounds. While the larger play area has a couple of shade structures over it, the side geared toward toddlers does not. Also, the park didn’t plan its swingset well, offering three full bucket seats that work for babies and young toddlers, but no swings for older kids. A large shade structure has several picnic tables underneath, making it a nice spot for lunch or for birthday parties.

The clubhouse has a large room that can be rented out for events.  The pool area has a large deck around it and stair entries on both sides of the shallow end. Shade structures on both sides offer covered seating and I could see at least one grill underneath. Though the sign claims the pool will have both a spa and a wading pool, I could only see one, which I believe was the spa. I couldn’t get inside the gates, but from outside, I did not see a wading pool.

The smaller park will be called Garden Point. It is expected to have a tot lot, barbecue and picnic areas, and shade structures. I’m not sure when this park will be ready, but it was still nothing but dirt when I visited a couple of weeks ago.

Overall, the new enclave is going to be a pretty high density area. Though it is part of Cypress Village, it is closer in proximity to Beacon Park and the Great Park.  It felt pretty remote from the rest of Cypress Village but residents will be able to use all of the Cypress facilities if they choose.