Montecito Vista, an award-winning garden-style affordable housing community, was Jamboree’s first joint venture project with the Irvine Company and was built on land leased from the Irvine Company. The Spanish-influenced architecture integrates seamlessly into the surrounding community and is part of four communities built around a pocket park. The other three communities are market-rate.
Jamboree worked with the City of Irvine to overcome initial community opposition to the project site density and the potential traffic impact. This commitment was instrumental in the Irvine Company voluntarily accelerating traffic improvement plans for the area and led to the approval of the project before neighboring market-rate projects. With more than 1,200 households on an interest list, the property leased up in eight months. This high demand workforce housing allows many people who work in an otherwise cost-prohibitive area to live there as well.
Irvine is a jobs-rich community overall, with an estimated 3.4 jobs per housing unit. Thousands of residents from other communities commute to the City of Irvine for work, creating traffic congestion, air quality problems and other issues. Incorporating workforce housing into its major employment centers makes sense for the City and families and is key to success for Irvine’s overall housing plan. Public-private collaboration with partners like Jamboree allows Irvine to boast the greatest ratio of affordable housing units in Orange County, and raises the quality of life for residents.
Montecito Vista is adjacent to a state-of-the-art high school that’s among the ranks of top-quality educational centers. It’s also two blocks from a regional retail center with shopping, dining and entertainment that is also a major area employer. Bus and rail lines are nearby, and the community provides easy access to the I-5 freeway.
