City of Irvine
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Motto: Innovation. Integrity. Professionalism. Flexibility. Responsiveness.
Location of Irvine within Orange County, California.
ZIP code	92602, 92603, 92604, 92606, 92612, 92614, 92616, 92617, 92618, 92619, 92620, 92623, 92697, 92709, 92710
Area code(s)	714/949
FIPS code	06-36770
GNIS feature ID	1660804
Area notes Sphere of Influence 25.6 miles Misc. Information City flower Lily of the Nile City tree Camphor City insect Western Swallowtail Butterfly City vegetable Asparagus
Website	http://www.cityofirvine.org/

Irvine is an incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the 69.7 square mile (180.5 km²) city has a population of about 209,806 (as of January 1, 2008). It has annexed in the past an undeveloped area to the north, and has also annexed the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, most of which is planned to be converted into the Orange County Great Park.

Because of its good schools, jobs and housing, the city was chosen in 2008 by CNNMoney.com as the fourth best place to live in the United States. In June 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that Irvine had the lowest violent crime rate (four homicides, 17 rapes, 50 robberies and 55 aggravated assaults in 2006) among cities in the United States with populations of more than 100,000, and in August 2008 the Census Bureau ranked Irvine as having the seventh highest median income among cities in the United States with populations of more than 65,000.

Irvine is home to the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Concordia University, the Orange County Center of the University of Southern California, and the Irvine campuses of Alliant International University, California State University Fullerton, and Pepperdine University. Irvine Valley College, a community college, is also located in the city.

Irvine is home to a number of corporations, particularly in the technology sector.

A planned city

The layout of Irvine was designed by Los Angeles architect William Pereira and Irvine Company employee Raymond Watson, and is nominally divided into townships called villages. The townships are separated by six-lane streets. Each township contains houses of similar design, along with commercial centers, religious institutions and schools. Commercial districts are checker-boarded in a periphery around the central townships.

Pereira originally envisioned an Atlantis-like circular plan with numerous man-made lakes and the university in the center. When the Irvine Company refused to relinquish valuable farmland in the flat central region of the ranch for this plan, the University site was moved to the base of the southern coastal hills. The design that ended up being used was based on the shape of a necklace (with the villages strung along two parallel main streets, which terminate at University of California, Irvine (UCI), the "pendant") . Traces of the original circular design are visible in the layout of the UCI campus and the two man-made lakes at the center of Woodbridge, one of the central villages.

All streets have landscaping allowances. Rights-of-way for powerlines also serve as bicycle corridors, parks and greenbelts to tie together ecological preserves. The greenery is irrigated with reclaimed water.

The homeowners' associations which govern some village neighborhoods exercise varying degrees of control on the appearances of homes. In more restrictive areas, houses' roofing, paint colors, and landscaping are regulated. Older parts of the Village of Northwood that were developed beginning in the early 1970s independent of the Irvine Company, have the distinction of being a larger village that is not under the purview of a homeowners' association. As a result, homeowners in the older Northwood areas do not pay a monthly village association fee; and its neighborhoods are generally not as uniform in appearance as those in other villages such as West Park and Woodbridge, the latter which, however, generally offer more amenities such as members-only swimming pools, tennis courts, and parks.

In addition to association dues, homeowners in villages developed in the 1980s and later may be levied a Mello-Roos assessment, which came about in the post-Proposition 13 era. For homeowners in these areas, the association dues coupled with the Mello-Roos assessment may add significantly to the cost of living in the city.

The Irvine Ranch played host to the Boy Scouts of America's 1953 National Scout Jamboree. Jamboree Road, a major street which now stretches from Newport Beach to the City of Orange, was named in honor of this event.

The Villages

Each of the villages was initially planned to have a distinct architectural theme.

 

Economy

The majority of the Irvine's economic development is coordinated through the Destination Irvine program run by the Chamber of Commerce. The program provides information and assistance on business-related incentives, demographics, development standards and various services such as affordable housing and childcare, schools.

Irvine is also used as a location for film projects. The city government grants free or low-cost filming permits and offers location information to prospective productions.

 

Top employers

Name	Sector	Employed
University of California, Irvine	Education	7645
Irvine Unified School District	Education	3707
St. John Knits	Clothing	2616
Irvine Company	Real Estate	2600
Parker Hannifin	Aircraft	1985
Allergan	Pharmaceutical	1922
Freedom Communications	Media	1875
Parker Aerospace	Aerospace & Defense	1825
Option One Mortgage	Mortgage & Finance	1801
Edwards Lifesciences	Health	1723
Washington Mutual	Financial	1700
Verizon Wireless	Communications	2100
Albertsons - Sav-On	Grocery & Pharmacy Retailer	1508
Claim Jumper	Restaurant	1400
Broadcom	Semiconductor	1313
Western National Group	Apartments	1100
In-N-Out Burger	Restaurant	1041
General Electric	Consumer Finance, Infrastructure	900

 

Business

The following companies are headquartered in Irvine:

• Allergan, Inc.
• AskMeNow Inc.
• ATEN Technology, Inc. (a division of ATEN International, Inc.)
• BAX Global
• Blizzard Entertainment
• Broadcom Corporation
• Claim Jumper
• CorVel Corporation
• Edwards Lifesciences LLC
• eMachines
• Epicor Software Corporation
• Felt Bicycles
• Fisker Coachbuild
• GameSpy (a division of IGN Entertainment, Inc.)
• Gateway, Inc.
• iLounge
• K2 Network
• Kofax
• In-N-Out Burger
• LA Fitness
• Linksys (a division of Cisco Systems)
• Maruchan, Inc. (a division of Toyo Suisan)
• Meade Instruments Corporation
• Mossimo Corporation
• O'Neill, Inc.
• Obsidian Entertainment
• Point of View, Inc.
• Printronix
• Quartics
• Ready at Dawn
• Red 5 Studios
• St. John
• Standard Pacific
• Superformance, LLC
• Taco Bell (a division of Yum! Brands, Inc.)
• Ultimate Ears

The following international companies have their North American headquarters in Irvine:

• Atlus
• BenQ Corporation
• Kia Motors
• Marukome
• Mazda Motor Corporation
• NHN
• Samsung Group
• Shimano
• Toshiba Corporation