Overview
About Acacia Knolls
Acacia Knolls is a gated community of 99 attached homes on 11.5 acres, reached from Acacia Lane and Silverleaf Lane. The City of Laguna Hills files it inside the wider area it calls The Missions, and the gate flag the city carries on this boundary reads yes.
The city's parcel record holds the whole of it as a single parcel, which is how an attached project owned in common is normally recorded, so the record describes the project rather than individual lots. The Orange County Fire Authority places the boundary in evacuation zone LGH08, which covers 3,802 households. Acacia Knolls lies inside Saddleback Valley Unified School District, whose campuses inside the Laguna Hills city limit are Valencia, Lomarena and San Joaquin elementaries and Laguna Hills High.
View available homes in Acacia KnollsHistory
How Acacia Knolls was built
The first modern building here was not housing at all. In 1962 Ross Cortese bought a piece of the Moulton Ranch just up El Toro Road and opened Leisure World in 1964, which is why the name Laguna Hills was already attached to this stretch of the county long before there was a city. The rest of the surrounding land filled in behind it through the 1970s and 1980s under county jurisdiction. Eighty six percent of residents voted for cityhood on 5 March 1991, and Laguna Hills became a city on 20 December 1991. Acacia Knolls sits in the part of town the city files as The Missions, on the older east side near the Civic Center.
It is a small, gated pocket of 99 attached homes on about eleven and a half acres, reached from Beckenham Street. The two lanes inside it, Acacia and Silverleaf, both take their names from trees rather than from people or places. The Aliso Creek Regional Trail runs nearby as a county trail open to walkers, cyclists and riders on horseback, a direct survival of the ranching landscape the neighborhood replaced.
By the Numbers
Acacia Knolls by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Acacia Knolls lifestyle
The city publishes eight named trails and gives each its own mileage. Aliso Creek Trail runs 2.0 miles inside the city limit as a county maintained national recreation trail, open to walkers, cyclists and riders on horseback. Alicia Trail is a paved 1.33 miles from Moulton Parkway and Alicia Parkway northeast to the Laguna Hills Community Center.
Oso Parkway carries a trail on each side. The Oso Bikeway Trail is 1.64 paved miles along the north side from Moulton to Cabot Road, and the Oso Multi-Use Trail is 1.79 dirt miles along the south side open to every user. The Nellie Gail Trail adds 0.90 dirt miles from Ramona Street to La Paz Road, and the Veeh Trail follows 0.26 riparian miles beside Veeh Ranch Park.
Fossil Reef Park is built on a limestone reef the city dates to roughly 17 million years ago, when much of Orange County lay under a shallow tropical bay. The reef runs six miles long and 300 feet deep and holds scallop shells the city describes as the size of dinner plates.
Schools
Schools serving Acacia Knolls
Acacia Knolls lies inside Saddleback Valley Unified School District. The campuses below are the district schools inside the Laguna Hills city limit, with the enrollment the federal count records for each.
9-12 · 1,317 students
K-6 · 525 students
K-6 · 487 students
K-6 · 221 students
FAQs
Common questions about Acacia Knolls
How big is Acacia Knolls?
Acacia Knolls covers 11.5 acres on the boundary the City of Laguna Hills publishes, and the city's own count gives it 99 attached homes. The two streets the city names here are Acacia Lane and Silverleaf Lane.
Is Acacia Knolls gated?
Yes. The gate flag the City of Laguna Hills carries on this boundary reads yes, and the city files the community inside its wider The Missions area.
Which school district serves Acacia Knolls?
Acacia Knolls lies inside Saddleback Valley Unified School District. The district publishes no attendance boundary map, so assignment for a specific address is confirmed through the district's own locator. Its campuses inside the Laguna Hills city limit are Valencia Elementary with 525 students, Lomarena Elementary with 487, San Joaquin Elementary with 221 and Laguna Hills High with 1,317, on the 2024-25 federal count.
When was Acacia Knolls laid out?
Orange County recorded Tract 7864 over almost all of this ground in 1974, on a map prepared by VTN Consolidated Inc under surveyor Frank W. Richardson. The neighboring Tract 8170 was recorded in 1973. A recorded map is the date the subdivision was filed, not the date any house was finished.
Why does the parcel record show only one parcel?
The city's parcel layer carries Acacia Knolls as a single parcel. That is the usual recording for an attached project where the land is held in common, and it means lot size and living area on the county record describe the project as a whole rather than each home.