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Rancho Santa Margarita is an extraordinary master-planned town of
approximately 15 square miles where residential neighborhoods,
business and commercial centers, and open space combine to create
the perfect hometown environment. In 1996 the "Celebrating the
Vision Committee", developed Rancho Santa Margarita’s Vision
Statement: A Small City with the Soul of a Small Village.
Rancho Santa Margarita incorporated on January 1, 2000, and became
the 33rd city in the County of Orange. Today we have over $48,500
residents. The Community is located along the foothills
of the Santa Ana Mountains and North to Trabuco Canyon Road
(O’Neil Park area), South to Oso Parkway (excluding Coto, Las
Flores, Wagon Wheel areas), West: To Mission Viejo to Alicia
(Santa Margarita Parkway at Alicia Parkway) and East: To Starr
Ranch area (Audubon Society).
Secluded, yet accessible, Rancho Santa Margarita is
strategically located in the heart of dynamic South Orange County.
The town is a prime beneficiary of two major transportation
improvement programs: the Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan (FCPP),
and the Foothill Transportation Corridor. FCPP’s comprehensive
network of roadways and road extensions will link the town to the
region’s many cultural, civic and retail facilities. Rancho Santa
Margarita is a landmark on the route of the Foothill
Transportation Corridor, one of Southern California’s proposed
superhighways.
Rancho Santa Margarita embodies a sense of respect for the land
and its heritage.
 More
than half of its 5,000 acres are for recreation-land set aside for
greenbelts, parks, bike and jogging paths, and recreational
facilities. Rancho Santa Margarita Landscape and Recreation
Corporation, is one of the common areas in the City, and includes
a 13-acre lake with swimming lagoon, boat rentals, 4 community
pools and 10 community parks with numerous sport fields and Tijera
Creek golfing
In an Urban Village such as Rancho Santa Margarita, the goal is to
provide residents with all the conveniences they’d enjoy in a
small city, while offering the appealing quality of life one finds
in a small village. Rancho Santa Margarita’s contemporary
lifestyle and work style environment includes schools, places of
worship, and medical and child care facilities. Santa Margarita
Center, Rancho Santa Margarita’s 700-acre commercial and business
center, is planned to provide an estimated 30,000 jobs by the end
of this decade.
Santa Margarita Center’s master plan includes a traditional “town
center” as the focal point of activity, where residents and
visitors can enjoy shopping, dining and cinemas.
Rancho Santa Margarita, the Urban Village where city amenities and
small town qualities combine to create an unsurpassed lifestyle.
Many residents enjoy walking and rollerblading around the lake and
also enjoy dining at several restaurant and of course shopping.
When settlers first opened up the West, the land dictated a
whole new kind of architecture. 
One that brought breathtaking views of its canyons, its plains and
its coastal mountains into the daily lives of the people. The
architecture of Rancho Santa Margarita goes back to this early
tradition. And beyond, when 18th century Spanish
missionaries built California’s first churches, missions and
monasteries. Today, many of these architectural elements from the
past are being preserved in the homes and public buildings of
Rancho Santa Margarita. This is the feeling and function behind
Rancho Santa Margarita’s architecture.
To blend the heritage and traditions of Early California with
the lifestyle of California today. With architecture designed for
living. In the presence of the land. Rancho Santa Margarita’s
setting is simply spectacular. The town sits amidst the beauty of
a vast alley of view lands.
5,600-foot
Saddleback Mountain and the sprawling range of the Santa Ana
Mountains, the woodlands of the Cleveland National Forest and the
rolling hills of Coto de Caza.amd O’Neill Regional Park.
O'Neill Regional Park
(949)
858-9365
In June 1950, O'Neill family matriarch Marguerite "Daisy"
O'Neill gathered with her son, Richard Jerome O'Neill, and
daughter, Alice O'Neill (Moiso) Avery, as well as Alice's two
sons, Tony and Jerome Moiso, to dedicate 278 acres of Rancho
Mission Viejo land to the County of Orange for the creation of
O'Neill Regional Park. Now totaling nearly 3,000 acres, the park
is enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year who picnic under its
ancient sycamore and oak trees and hike along its more than
eighteen miles of trails. In addition, visitors may enjoy a riding
and hiking trail that stretches from the O'Neill Park to Doheny
State Beach. For more information about on-site facilities and
hours of operation, please call O'Neill Regional Park at
949-858-9365.
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