Overview
About Discovery
Discovery is the smallest of the three Tonner Hills communities, 5.5 acres carrying 110 addresses all on North Discovery Lane. Ninety-four of them carry a unit designator and the parcel layer records five parcels beneath them, four of them residential. The general plan carries 5.4 acres as Medium Density Residential inside a specific plan whose surrounding acreage is mostly low density and open space.
All 5.5 acres fall in the Very High fire hazard severity class, as the whole of the Tonner Hills does, with 0.2 acres in the landslide layer. Discovery sits in Brea Olinda Unified. Olinda Elementary is the nearest campus at 0.49 miles with 649 students, Brea Olinda High is 1.39 miles away with 1,676, and Brea Junior High is 2.43 miles with 921.
View available homes in DiscoveryHistory
How Discovery was built
Discovery is an oil field word. The discovery well is the one that proves a field exists, and Brea's came in 1898, when wildcatters brought in a major strike two years after drilling began in the Brea-Olinda field. Before that this was sheep range: Abel Stearns bought 30,672 acres of the old Ontiveros grant in 1863 and from 1870 leased it to Basque families who sold wool east and mutton into Los Angeles and San Francisco, tolerating the tar that seeped out of the hillsides and letting neighbors cart it away for fuel.
The neighborhood is 110 homes on five and a half acres, all of them addressed off North Discovery Lane, most carrying a unit number. It is a small, tightly built hillside group rather than a tract, on ground the oil companies held until they let it go.
By the Numbers
Discovery by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Discovery lifestyle
Schools
Schools serving Discovery
Discovery sits inside Brea Olinda Unified, on the far northern side of the hills. Olinda Elementary is 0.49 miles away, Brea Olinda High 1.39 miles and Brea Junior High 2.43 miles. Enrollment below is the 2024-25 federal count. Attendance boundaries set the assignment, so confirm a specific address with the district.
9-12 · 1,676 students
9-12 · 41 students
7-8 · 921 students
K-6 · 649 students
K-6 · 544 students
K-6 · 504 students
K-6 · 498 students
K-6 · 460 students
K-6 · 434 students
K-6 · 13 students
FAQs
Common questions about Discovery
What kind of housing is Discovery?
Attached housing. The city's address layer records 110 addresses on 5.5 acres, 94 of them carrying a unit designator, on five parcels of which four are residential.
When was Discovery built?
Tract 16978 was recorded with the County of Orange in 2009 by RBF Consulting, under the 2003 Tonner Hills master map filed by The Keith Companies. The county had entitled the Tonner Hills Planned Community in November 2002 and Brea annexed it in December 2005.
How does Discovery relate to Blackstone?
Both were cut from the same master map, Tract 16178 of 2003, along with Blackstone West. The three are what the Tonner Hills Specific Plan produced, and Discovery is the smallest of them at 5.5 acres.
Is Discovery in a fire hazard zone?
Yes. All 5.5 acres inside the boundary fall in the Very High fire hazard severity class on the map the City of Brea publishes, and the landslide layer covers 0.2 acres.
Which schools serve Discovery?
Brea Olinda Unified. Olinda Elementary is 0.49 miles away with 649 students on the 2024-25 federal count, Brea Olinda High is 1.39 miles with 1,676, and Brea Junior High is 2.43 miles with 921. Confirm a specific address with the district.