Overview
About Portola Center South
Portola Center South covers 65.4 acres and holds 313 homes on 31 streets, sixteenth largest of the fifty Lake Forest communities on this site. The city zones the ground three ways, 17.6 acres for multiple-family dwellings, 13.1 for single-family dwellings and 1.9 as mixed use, which is the only mixed-use zoning inside any of these fifty boundaries. The median lot measures 4,053 square feet.
The city's pool layer records no pool of any kind inside the boundary, private or shared, which is true of only one other Lake Forest community here. El Toro Water District supplies the water, street sweeping runs Friday in the small hours, and children go to Del Cerro Elementary, Los Alisos Intermediate and Mission Viejo High.
View available homes in Portola Center SouthHistory
How Portola Center South was built
Gaspar de Portola came through this ground in 1769, leading the first Spanish expedition to travel California by land, and the hills above this community carry his name. The land was granted in 1842 by Governor Alvarado to Jose Antonio Serrano as Rancho Canada de los Alisos, 10,668 acres of cattle range that the drought beginning in 1863 destroyed.
The rancho was foreclosed to a Los Angeles banker and split ten ways, and Dwight Whiting of Boston bought most of it in 1884, planting olives, grapes and about 400 acres of eucalyptus near Serrano Creek in a lumber venture that failed. What his trees became was the forest Occidental Petroleum built houses among in the late 1960s, and with two dug lakes they gave the city its name. Portola Hills was still a separate census designated place in 2000, when Lake Forest residents voted to annex it along with Foothill Ranch.
By the Numbers
Portola Center South by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Portola Center South lifestyle
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 Portola Center South
The City of Lake Forest property record names Del Cerro Elementary for all 316 addresses in Portola Center South, with Los Alisos Intermediate for middle school and Mission Viejo High for high school. There is no split at any level. All three are Saddleback Valley Unified campuses.
9-12 · 1,566 students
7-8 · 595 students
K-6 · 390 students
FAQs
Common questions about Portola Center South
How big is Portola Center South?
The community covers 65.4 acres on the city's published boundary and holds 313 homes on 316 parcels across 31 named streets. It ranks sixteenth by acreage of the fifty Lake Forest communities on this site, and the median parcel measures 4,053 square feet.
When was Portola Center South built?
Five of its six recorded maps were filed between July 2015 and June 2017 by Hunsaker and Associates Irvine under licensed surveyor Robert L. Wheeler IV. The four maps recorded on June 9, 2017 are the latest subdivision filings anywhere under these fifty communities. An earlier map, tract 13849, covered the same ground in 1989.
Which schools serve Portola Center South?
The city's property record names Del Cerro Elementary, Los Alisos Intermediate and Mission Viejo High for all 316 addresses inside the boundary, with no split at any level. All three are Saddleback Valley Unified campuses.
Is there a community pool?
No. The city's pool layer records no pool of any kind inside the boundary, private or shared. Lakeside Park is the only other Lake Forest community on this site with the same reading.
What is the zoning here?
The city zones 17.6 acres for multiple-family dwellings, 13.1 acres for single-family dwellings and 1.9 acres as mixed use. That mixed-use designation is the only one recorded inside any of these fifty community boundaries.