Las Ventanas by Taylor Morrison at Portola Springs

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irvinehomeowner said:
Does living closer to the forest or the ocean help with the air quality?
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yes.

and all of the studies of health effects/learning difficulty seem to draw a cut-off distance of ~500m or a quarter mile from the freeway.  several that I have read also find no effect from busy roads and minor highways.

my conclusion is/was that living within 1/3 mile (extra buffer) of the 405 or the 5 fwy was not a good idea for health.

while living within say 1/4 mile of culver or jeffrey or the 133 fwy was a concern more for esthetic (noise) and resale reasons.
 
qwerty said:
blitzjs said:
What about the health effects?  At first, I was concerned mainly about the noise but with the newer double pane windows and better insulation, I couldn't hear the road noise at all in the models while all the windows and doors were closed.  Outside the models was a different story.  Then I began reading some studies released over the last couple of years about the possible health effects of living near a freeway especially in pregnant women and in young children.  With starting a family being one of the major reasons behind us looking for a new home, I couldn't help but attribute my decision to live near a freeway (if I do indeed to do so) to be a major contributing factor in them developing asthma for example.  The problem is it seems all the new construction seems to be relatively close (and in some cases absolutely close) to freeways. 
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I dont travel the 133 or 241, but im guessing Jamboree, Culver, Jeffrey, etc all get much more traffic than eithe the 133 or 241.  That is my point, regardless of where you live you can only get so far from a freeway or main arterial road. Not much you can do in my opinion, dealing with air pollution is one of the benefits you get from living in the beautiful weather of Socal.
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In the two months that i have lived next to the 261, I can confidently say that Jambooree/Culver/Jeffrey are far more noisy than 261. The 133 seems the most noisy of all the toll roads.
 
iacrenter said:
westirvine_loaner said:
Hi all, first post here... I found the toll road discussion interesting. I just bought a couple of months back in west irvine and my house backs to the 261.

It also helps that I really back to the portola exit ramp which buffers me from the 261 further. Also, I cannot see the toll road since it is lower on the other side of the hill that separates the community from the toll road.
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Welcome Westirvine_loaner!

If you hear that loud engine revving noise at 12am--that is just me down shifting my v8 as I decelerate down the Portola toll ramp  :)

I've lived near major roads and am not a fan of the increased noise and pollution factor. I'm sure you can get used to the noise but that is something I will try to avoid if given a choice. Even if it doesn't bother you personally, it will affect your price at resale time.
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thanks for the welcome iacrenter!

I am sure it will affect my resale value, no question about that. I plan to be in the house for a long long time so hopefully the resale value at that time won't be a big deal for me.  :)
 
Here is their picture of the models building in progress from Taylor's website:

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Based on the floorplans, it looks like Models 1 to 3 from left to right.
 
As much as I want to love this subdivision--traditional SFR setup, ?good price point, decent floor plans--the road noise is something people will have to judge for themselves. I went to the site last week and you can clearly hear a lot of tire noise from the 133. I doubt you would hear it from the inside, so it just depends on how much it bothers you as you BBQ in your backyard or walk outside your home.

My same concerns are also shared with the new Laguna Altura homes and the 133. Although the town homes are closer to the 405, there are large soil berms blocking sound (not sure if it wraps around the entire North end). The recent photos [http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php?topic=1286.msg16913#msg16913] (thanks IHO) show the largest SFR homes are exposed directly to the 133. They will probably build some walls and trees to act as a sound buffer but you have to wonder about that.
 
Everyone is complaining about how close Las Ventanas is to the Toll Road. If you look at the site plan, there will be plenty of homes that have a good distance from the toll road.

The demo models (The ones in red) are close to the Toll but I would take the homes on the right side of the map any day.
 

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I agree... I wouldn't mind any of the homes farther away from the 133. Like I've said previously, the neighboring homes themselves provide a good sound buffer... although not so much against air pollution (and fire).
 
rickr said:
Everyone is complaining about how close Las Ventanas is to the Toll Road. If you look at the site plan, there will be plenty of homes that have a good distance from the toll road.

The demo models (The ones in red) are close to the Toll but I would take the homes on the right side of the map any day.
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This.  Who wants to bet that the builder will catch on and there will be a "Freeway Proximity Premium" built into certain lots?  :)
 
Even though the Toll is at a higher elevation by Sevilla, Las Ventanas still is more attractive to me if you can pick up the homes close to Arrowhead.  Looking at the map, all of Sevilla is close to the Toll road.
 

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rickr said:
Even though the Toll is at a higher elevation by Sevilla, Las Ventanas still is more attractive to me if you can pick up the homes close to Arrowhead.  Looking at the map, all of Sevilla is close to the Toll road.
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Dibs on Lot 31.  Farthest from freeway Plan 3 w/ real driveway, curb parking across street from lot (I think?), looks like a larger than average lot for this dev...
 
shadax said:
Dibs on Lot 31.  Farthest from freeway Plan 3 w/ real driveway, curb parking across street from lot (I think?), looks like a larger than average lot for this dev...
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Whoah whoah... I'm in Lot 74.... that's curb parking next to me... I'm throwing eggs from the sideyard.  8)
 
During the routine unauthorized recon mission, extremely small rooms were observed.  Here's the "great room":

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I'm no BK, but these plans seemed to deviate from the typical Collection feel.  I'm guessing these plans were conceived pre-Collection era.  One of the plan's 1/2 bathroom reminded me of the WB Treo narrow bathrooms with sink on one end and toilet directly across. 

-Whopper
 
Condo TRAP said:
During the routine unauthorized recon mission, extremely small rooms were observed.  Here's the "great room":

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I'm no BK, but these plans seemed to deviate from the typical Collection feel.  I'm guessing these plans were conceived pre-Collection era.  One of the plan's 1/2 bathroom reminded me of the WB Treo narrow bathrooms with sink on one end and toilet directly across. 

-Whopper
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That "great room" doesn't look that great to me.  I hope they do a great job at staging these homes. 
 
I think if they were not going to allow Plan 1's front "office" space to be converted to a bed/bath, they should have just used that sqfootage to enlarge the great room somehow...then it could be at least a little great.

The more I look at all of these plans, the more I find Sevilla Plan 2 to be my fav.  I just don't dig the location.
 
Mates, here's the Plan 3 Kitchen (cabinets and islands locations sprayed in lime green):

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The bloke who made these plans left the bloody windows out of every bathroom but the master bath.

Cheers!

 
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