SOCO Walk

SOCO Walk is 5.9 acres in downtown Fullerton, and the general plan gives all of it the High Density Residential designation, the only one of the fifty Fullerton neighborhoods on this site to carry it. The zoning is SPD Specific Plan District across the same 5.88 acres. Inside are 124 addresses on two parcels, reached from eight court names that read like a railway timetable, Continental, Depot, District, Gateway, Market, Metro, Town and Village, all off Soco Drive.

Union Pacific Park is at 121 West Truslow Avenue on 1.7 acres, with barbecues, basketball, picnic tables, a playground, recreation trails and restrooms. Maple Elementary is 0.1 miles from the boundary at 315 students, Richman Elementary 0.51 miles at 470, Nicolas Junior High 1.24 miles at 539 and Fullerton Union High 0.51 miles at 1,880. All 5.9 acres sit in the state liquefaction zone.

SOCO is short for South of Commonwealth, and until the early 2000s the blocks on that side of the street were the part of downtown Fullerton the city had not got around to. The change started in 2002 with three local men: Jack Franklin, who ran Heroes Bar and Grill and was watching his rent climb, Walt Johnson, who owned property on the block and had sat on the redevelopment advisory committee for twenty years, and Mike Ritto, who worked in advertising. Their idea was to take the block bounded by Santa Fe, Commonwealth and Malden, move Heroes into one of Johnson's buildings, turn an alley into a pedestrian walkway and fill the rest with places to eat and drink. The council passed a restaurant overlay ordinance that December that freed downtown restaurants from adding their own parking, and the district opened for business.

SOCO Walk is the housing that followed. The Olson Company built it in 2006 on a stretch of run down residential land, 120 units on not quite six acres, and it faces the Amtrak and Metrolink platforms across the street. The little private drives inside are called Depot Court, Metro Court, Gateway Court, District Court and Market Court, which tells you exactly what was being sold: this is one of the few addresses in north Orange County where a commuter can walk to a train.