Overview
About Bennett Ranch
Bennett Ranch covers 60.2 acres with 354 homes on the city's address record and a median lot of 5,299 square feet. The Aliso Creek Trail runs through the community on the city's trail map, and the land use layer sets aside 6.4 acres inside the boundary as regional park and open space against 5.8 acres of low density residential. Seven and eight tenths of the acreage sits in FEMA flood zone AE, with the remaining 52.4 acres in zone X.
The city's pool layer counts 60 backyard pools, 39 spas and 29 solar installations inside the boundary, and no shared pool. Bennett Ranch is one of only seven Lake Forest communities on this site whose addresses split across more than one elementary school, and the only one that splits at all three levels. It is also one of the communities the city lists on its own Neighborhood Watch roster.
View available homes in Bennett RanchHistory
How Bennett Ranch was built
Bennett is a real name here, not a marketing one. The Harvey Bennett Ranch House, built in 1908, is one of the four historic buildings preserved at Heritage Hill Historical Park a short way up Serrano Road, and it stands there as the citrus farming chapter of the valley's story, alongside the Serrano Adobe of about 1863, the El Toro Grammar School of 1890 and St George's Episcopal Mission of 1891.
The modern Bennett Ranch is 60 acres and 354 homes on streets that all sound like the same idea said twenty different ways: Alderwood, Ashbrook, Ashfield, Ashwood, Briarcroft, Broadleaf, Brookdale, Brookhaven, Buckwood, Cedarspring, Coldbrook, Fallbrook, Fernbank, Glen Acres, Hazelwood, Southbrook, Spring Glen and Springwater. The Aliso Creek Trail runs through it, part of the boundary sits in the creek's mapped flood zone, and the city's build year layer puts most of the housing in the 1970s and 1980s.
By the Numbers
Bennett Ranch by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Bennett Ranch lifestyle
Aliso Creek Trail runs through the community on the city's trail map.
Lake Forest keeps 31 parks open from dawn to dusk. The Lake Forest Sports Park and Recreation Center opened in November 2014 on 86 acres, with 57 of them given over to sports fields, and the city runs the largest free skatepark in Orange County at Etnies Skatepark.
Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park holds 1,575 acres of county open space against the north edge of the city, and the city's trail map carries 49 named trails.
Across the whole city the general plan sets 3,756 acres to residential use and 3,065 acres to open space and parks, which is why so much of Lake Forest reads as green from the ridgelines.
Schools
Schools serving Bennett Ranch
Bennett Ranch is the only Lake Forest community on this site whose addresses split at all three school levels. The city's property record assigns 350 addresses to Montevideo Elementary and 21 to Glen Yermo Elementary, 350 to Los Alisos Intermediate and 21 to Serrano Intermediate, and 369 to El Toro High with 2 to Mission Viejo High. All six campuses are Saddleback Valley Unified.
9-12 · 1,902 students
7-8 · 595 students
K-6 · 444 students
FAQs
Common questions about Bennett Ranch
How big is Bennett Ranch?
The community covers 60.2 acres on the city's published boundary, seventeenth largest of the fifty Lake Forest communities on this site, and holds 354 homes on 371 parcels. The median parcel measures 5,299 square feet.
Which schools serve Bennett Ranch?
It depends on the address, and Bennett Ranch is the only Lake Forest community on this site that splits at all three levels. The city's property record assigns 350 addresses to Montevideo Elementary and 21 to Glen Yermo, 350 to Los Alisos Intermediate and 21 to Serrano Intermediate, and 369 to El Toro High with 2 to Mission Viejo High. All six campuses are Saddleback Valley Unified.
When was Bennett Ranch laid out?
Five subdivision maps were recorded between November 1978 and August 1981, all surveyed by Frank W. Richardson with VTN Consolidated Inc. as engineer on four of them. That first date makes Bennett Ranch nineteenth earliest of the forty-five Lake Forest communities whose recorded map date could be established.
Is any of it in a flood zone?
Yes. The federal flood layer the city publishes places 7.8 of the 60.2 acres in zone AE, the one-percent-annual-chance floodplain. The remaining 52.4 acres sit in zone X, and the Aliso Creek Trail crosses the community on the city's trail map.
What is there to do outdoors?
The Aliso Creek Trail runs through the community on the city's trail map, one of 49 named trails Lake Forest carries citywide. The city keeps 31 parks open from dawn to dusk, and Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park holds 1,575 acres of county open space against the north edge of the city.