Overview
About Park Avenue
Park Avenue climbs from the edge of downtown to the top of the ridge, and the neighborhood named for it spreads across the slopes on Skyline Drive, Manzanita Drive, Mystic Way, Hilledge Drive, Blumont, Anacapa Way, Caribbean Way and Tahiti. The city draws it as evacuation zone 16 and records 656 households inside it. Across 428 acres the assessor counts 596 parcels on forty-three named streets, and the city zones 491 of its 594 parcels R1.
Two of the district's four campuses stand inside this boundary, Thurston Middle School at 2100 Park Avenue and Laguna Beach High School at 625 Park Avenue, out of a district of 2,291 students. Seventy-one acres are open space preserve, fourteen more belong to Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, and 1.24 miles of city trail run inside the line across eighteen mapped segments. The city's Historic Resources Inventory lists 32 resources here, eighteen of them filed under the Manzanita Street neighborhood.
View available homes in Park AvenueHistory
How Park Avenue was built
A few houses appeared on these slopes in the 1920s, but the neighborhood name that sits on much of this ground, Mystic Hills, only turns up in real estate advertising from June 1959, when Coast Realty Co. was selling ocean view lots, wide avenues and model homes open for inspection. Building carried on through the 1960s.
The 1993 fire hit this hillside harder than anywhere else in the city. It ran through Mystic Hills on 27 October, and low water pressure on the hill meant hundreds of houses were lost, part of a fire that destroyed 441 structures, 286 of them homes in Laguna Beach, and burned more than sixteen thousand acres. The neighborhood was rebuilt afterwards, which is why so much of it reads as 1990s architecture on 1920s and 1950s street layouts. The city counts 656 households on 428 acres here, with 260 of those acres inside the landslide hazard layer and 1.24 miles of city trail.
By the Numbers
Park Avenue by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Park Avenue lifestyle
Laguna Beach occupies 8.84 square miles with a population of about 23,000 and roughly six million visitors a year on the city's own count, and provides its own police, fire and marine safety protection.
Beaches north of Aliso Creek close between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.; beaches south of the creek close between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.; Thousand Steps Beach closes between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The city permits surfing at Agate, Brooks, Rockpile and Thalia Street beaches. Smoking fines on city beaches, parks and trails run $100, then $200, then $500 within twelve months.
Schools
Schools serving Park Avenue
Laguna Beach Unified serves Park Avenue along with the rest of the city, from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Attendance is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current assignment for a specific address with the district before relying on it.
K-5 · 404 students
K-5 · 536 students
6-8 · 524 students
9-12 · 815 students
FAQs
Common questions about Park Avenue
How big is Park Avenue and how is it laid out?
The city's published boundary encloses 428 acres, drawn as evacuation zone 16, with 656 households on the city record. The assessor counts 596 parcels on forty-three named streets climbing from the edge of downtown to the ridge, among them Skyline Drive, Manzanita Drive, Mystic Way, Blumont and Anacapa Way. The city zones 491 of its 594 parcels R1.
Which schools serve Park Avenue?
Laguna Beach Unified serves the whole city from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Two of the four stand inside this boundary, Thurston Middle at 2100 Park Avenue and Laguna Beach High at 625 Park Avenue. Elementary assignment is set by the district, so confirm the current one for a specific address with the district office.
When was Park Avenue built?
Twenty-one tracts were recorded between 1927 and 1988. Hugo B. Lindberg recorded four of them in 1927 alone, and Richard L. Blair three more across 1959, 1960 and 1964. Building concentrated sharply in the 1960s, which produced 200 of the roughly 500 dated structures inside the boundary, and about one house in five predates 1950.
What open space and trails are inside the boundary?
Seventy-one acres of open space preserve and fourteen acres of Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, with 1.24 miles of city trail crossing the neighborhood in eighteen mapped segments, fifteen of them public and three private. Check the city's trail pages for current access before planning a route.
What should I know about building on these slopes?
The city's seismic hazard landslide layer covers 260 of the neighborhood's 428 acres, three fifths of it, and eighteen parcels carry the residential hillside protection designation. The Historic Resources Inventory also lists 32 resources here, eighteen under the Manzanita Street neighborhood. Take a specific address to the city's Community Development counter before designing anything.