Cons of Tustin Fields & Village of Columbus

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rkp

Well-known member
I never understood why TF and VoC got such a bad rap.  My wife and I are looking very seriously in that neighborhood and wanted to gain some wisdom from the TI community. 

For me, the pros are central location, proximity to 405 (in santa monica every weekend), lots of shopping nearby, better $/sq ft, diverse floor plans (hate WP and parts of irvine that look like clone homes), IUSD, and possible gain(both $ and enjoyment) from development of Legacy.

The cons are Jamboree and major roads surrounding the area, portions with extremely high melloroos, power lines, concrete factory, garbage trucks, and train noise.

What am I missing? 
 
My observations of each.

Tustin Fields - Dense, crowded, lack of parking, which is a detriment if you plan to entertain guest. Right next to the toll road, and train tracks. The Harvard crossing requires the Amtrack and Metrolink trains to blare their horns two to three times for about 3 seconds straight. The earliest trains cross around 7am.  ???

Village of Columbus - Same kind of problems as Tustin Fields, but less pronounced IMO. Up to half of the usable parking space is reserved for "fire lanes" which aren't marked very clearly (no red strip on the sidewalk, etc). The fines are harsh, and some people have told me they've gotten towed. Part of the community is "low cost housing", detached condos in the North-East section of the community close to Edinger and the toll road / Jamboree.

Both communities have plenty of homes in some stage of distress (short sale, NoD, etc), so keep that in mind for future "assessments" levied by the HOA in either community.
 
i actually like the location of VOC, we really like the plan 4 over at ainsley park. like you said, the pros are location to irvine employment, takes about 10 minutes from harvard/columbus drive to the airport, the district and marketplace are close by and its kind of in between the 5 and 405 (closer to the 5 though).

I think the cons are no different than a lot of other irvine neighborhoods, but VOC and portola seem to get the bad reputation for whatever reason.  Jambo/Culver/Jefferey/Sand Canyon pretty much cut through every neighborhood in irvine. The train cuts through several neighborhoods, etc. 

I dont think you are missing anything, if you like the neighborhood just buy where you like, you are the one that lives there.  Im waiting to see what the augusta homes by WL over at columbus square are priced at, although i believe those homes are zoned to TUSD, and not the good TUSD schools
 
IndieDev said:
VOC: The fines are harsh, and some people have told me they've gotten towed. Part of the community is "low cost housing", detached condos in the North-East section of the community close to Edinger and the toll road / Jamboree.
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I've had my car towed.
My GF has had her car towed.
We have a couple that lives in Section 8 housing across the street from us.  All we constant hear is arguing and screaming coming from their windows at all times of the day.  We've called the policed on them twice already.
 
Yeah it doesn't surprise me that you've encountered that.

That being said, I won't poop on anyone's party anymore. If people love VoC or Tustin Fields, go get 'em. Lots of listings lately.  ;)
 
woodbridge = red-headed stepchild of IUSD high schools

mellos - as with any tract built/developed circa 2005/2006 - ridiculous....  We're talking $7-8K...  compare that to Northpark/ NW Pointe (~$2K per year)... the present value of that amount @ 5% is around $75K.  i just found your pricing differential... 

odd location - in the small sliver of land between harvard and the wash...  seems more like an planning afterthought (what do we do with this land from the old airbase housing? i know! let's build houses!!!!)  also as mentioned, proximity to railroad tracks

all in all, it aint that bad.... there's something bad about every place.  i mean look at irvine in general.  east of the 405... nothing dramitically special... it just happens to be really expensive.    so if it fits ur budget, ur lifestyle, and ur overall needs, don't let anybody stop you...  just look at me, i just opened escrow for a house where i'm overpaying by $50-70K...
 
Thank you all for the feedback.  I agree that if it makes us happy, we should buy.  But I want to make sure there isnt some glaring obvious problem like the earth sinking (playa vista!) or dangerous substances to raise children.  I know its close to major roads but growing up in west LA, there really isnt any middle class to upper middle class neighborhood that isnt near something.  Plus the houses I am looking at are about 1000 feet from the Jamboree wall and tend to be center in the communities.

We actually were that close to pulling the trigger on a VoC 4000+ sq ft house.  The bank came back at ~$240 sq ft but we hesitated because property tax + mello + HOA > $24K a year.  Didnt seem right to pay that much outside of the mortgage when our current Ave 1 rental is less than that.

Some points that people made:

Tustin Fields being dense - it looks like TF2 isnt so bad.  the houses near Moffet seem a bit more spaced but do agree that its more compact than VoC.

Train - how loud and how far can you hear it.  whats a good time to really hear the worst of it?  I would like to park my car and see how much I can hear through the thin windows of my car.

Short sale/foreclosures - completely agree.  this is part of the reason we are looking in this neighborhood.  the only concern is how much lower can it go when some properties are closing at ~$230/sq ft.

Melloroos - this is definitely scary.  The house we were close to pulling trigger on had $11K melloroos with a clause that increased the MR by a fixed 2% a year.  Its odd but within the same neighborhood, some houses have much more reasonable MR.  We are looking at a few that total blended tax rate is about 1.4-1.5%
 
To be honest, under the right conditions, you can hear the train all the way in West Park near Main and Harvard. I think you should definitely go there around 7am in the morning, about 10 minutes before the train is about to stop at the Tustin Station on Edinger. The train will blare it's horns about 500 yards or so before it crosses Harvard and continue to do so until it completely crosses.

If you can stomach that pretty much everyday, every 45 minutes to 90 minutes until 7PM, then you're good.
 
You can hear the train even AFTER 7pm.

As for schools, while Woodbridge may not be as good as the others, the elementary for that 'hood (Stonecreek) was number one recently.
 
I live a few football fields away from the crossing at Harvard and can attest to the loudness of the train horns.  The commuter trains during the day have quiet horns and you can barely hear them from where I am.  It's the big trains that rumble through at night that blare the loud #%@# horns.  They've woken me up at 2:30am before on nights when I've had the window open.
 
What about the fact that you can't plant your own edible fruits on that ground and eat it? It's in the disclaimer. Know you are buying former military land. And, watch that Jamboree dust.
 
frank69m said:
What about the fact that you can't plant your own edible fruits on that ground and eat it? It's in the disclaimer. Know you are buying former military land. And, watch that Jamboree dust.
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is that true for TF as well? 
 
Let's be honest, there's a reason why TF and even Kensington Park in Irvine are so well priced, no one wants to listen to that everyday and night.
 
IndieDev said:
Let's be honest, there's a reason why TF and even Kensington Park in Irvine are so well priced, no one wants to listen to that everyday and night.
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Wouldnt the horn also effect West Park which is on the other side of Harvard?  Yet those houses are 25% more...
 
rkp said:
IndieDev said:
Let's be honest, there's a reason why TF and even Kensington Park in Irvine are so well priced, no one wants to listen to that everyday and night.
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Wouldnt the horn also effect West Park which is on the other side of Harvard?  Yet those houses are 25% more...
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Technically, it's "Westpark II", but I know what area you're talking about.

I think it's two things.

1) Westpark II technically has Columbus Grove as a buffer between it and the toll road / Jamboree. You won't get the same dust and exhaust particles that CG residents will get. Also, Westpark II is actually Irvine, and not Tustin like CG.

2) Westpark II also has the condos on Deerfield Ave, and and Tustin Fields as a buffer against the train tracks. Yes, you can hear the train, but it's not nearly as bad as it would be in Deerfield Avenue or Tustin Fields, it's somewhat muted. If you live in Tustin Fields, you can actually feel a subtle rumble from the big trains that pass by, not so in Westpark II.

 
TF1 is more dense than TF2 because it is 100% attached housing.  TF1 is zoned for med-high density residential and TF2 low density residential.

39062_140689112621375_140331142657172_307301_50196_n.jpg


As for the train noise, a quiet zone will begin at Red Hill next week and Harvard later this summer.
http://www.tustinca.org/documents/QuietZone2011.jpg

 
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I've lived in WPII and you can still feel/hear it.

And a quiet zone only stops the horns... the rumbling/speeding of the train is more bothersome.

Funny... no one mentions that from that area you can also see/hear the Disneyland fireworks.
 
test said:
TF1 is more dense than TF2 because it is 100% attached housing.  TF1 is zoned for med-high density residential and TF2 low density residential.

39062_140689112621375_140331142657172_307301_50196_n.jpg


As for the train noise, a quiet zone will begin at Red Hill next week and Harvard later this summer.
http://www.tustinca.org/documents/QuietZone2011.jpg
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test - do you know if moffett will connect into the legacy?  wondering if that street will become a noisy artery
 
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