Eastwood Village, the newest neighborhood in Irvine, made its debut over the weekend. It is located just north off of Irvine Boulevard and west of Jeffrey. It will eventually stretch north to Portola Parkway. While most villages that opened in the last decade or so have been bordered on all sides by either open space or other new villages, Eastwood’s fourth side actually borders older homes in Northwood. Residents will be part of the Eastwood Village Community Association, which will eventually feature four parks and a brand new elementary school. It also has paseos (walkways), a pedestrian underpass to connect it to the Jeffrey Open Space Trail and easy access to the Hicks Canyon trail.

At this time, they have announced six new neighborhoods in Eastwood Village. Three of them opened on Saturday and the remaining three are projected to open in mid-March. However, many of them are only partially planned so far and will have future extensions within the village, though they won’t be adjacent to the existing homes. There are five major chunks of land where they will build these extensions; one just east of the school and the other four comprising the entire northern half of the village. While many will likely include additional models from the existing homes, they may end up adding entirely new collections. None of the people in the three sales offices that I visited had any information regarding the future buildout of the neighborhood.

Eastwood Village is part of the Irvine Unified School District. It will have its own elementary school, known as Eastwood Elementary, which is slated to open for the start of the 2017-18 school year. In the meantime, students will likely attend nearby Santiago Hills Elementary School in the village of Northwood. Eastwood students will attend Sierra Vista Middle School and Northwood High School. As always, boundaries are subject to change.

All six collections come from Irvine Pacific, though there is a possibility that the future buildout could include other builders. The current six neighborhoods include flats, townhomes/condos, detached condos, and single family homes. Below is a brief rundown of the collections. Over the next few weeks, I will review the tracts. Those with an asterisk are open now.

Eastwood Elementary School will sit at the center of the village, with three of the neighborhood’s parks surrounding it. The future Mosaic Park will be a little farther north. The six current collections are at the south end of the village, without anything farther north than the school (approximately from Encore Road). There will be a paseo, or walkway, running along the entire west side of the village, creating a slight border between Eastwood and the existing Northwood homes. There are plans for the paseo to eventually connect the two villages.

While the Great Park neighborhoods had a central office and their parks were ready for visitors, Eastwood only had its individual sales offices open. Two of the parks are built, but aren’t located anywhere near the models and are in area primarily limited to construction traffic (though the roads are open). I was able to quickly visit these parks.

Grand Trellis Park includes a large shade structure with picnic tables and a great lawn. A second paseo that will run up the center of the village will pass through. It is located right where the Encore entrance (from Jeffrey) meets with the Parkwood entrance (from Irvine Blvd), putting it in the middle of the village. It is just north of the planned school.

Eucalyptus Park is also built. This is one of the bigger parks and is located just south of the school off of Parkwood. It includes one half-court basketball court, shade structures, and barbecue and picnic areas. The playground is already there, with two separate play areas for toddlers and older children. I have to say, I was pretty disappointed with the playground. Both play structures were fairly small and included metal slides, which will be scorching hot in the summer, even with the playground’s shade structures. It has a partially shaded sandbox with benches next to it. The playground only includes two swings, both designed for older kids. There aren’t any bucket or half-bucket swings needed for babies and toddlers.

Eucalyptus Park also has a club room and pool area. Just outside the building were four tables and a couple of grills. The community center is built but wasn’t open when I visited. I looked in the windows but only saw the main room, so I’m not sure whether it includes a kitchen or any smaller rooms. The Junior Olympic pool is next to the club room. It has a large deck area, including some shade structures/cabanas. The area also has a wading pool and spa. It looked like the pool had a chair lift, making it accessible for those who need assistance entering the pool.

There are two other planned parks. Eastwood Neighborhood Park will sit just north of the school and west of Grand Trellis Park. It will include a baseball field with soccer field overlay, lighted tennis courts, a tot lot, shade structures, and barbecue and picnic areas. The last park, Mosaic Park, is slightly farther north, but still just off of Parkwood like the others. It will have another Junior Olympic pool, spa, and wading pool, half-court basketball, a tot lot, shade structures, barbecue and picnic areas, and a sand volleyball court.

Overall, I got the impression that Eastwood Village opened too early. Half of the planned neighborhoods aren’t open yet and half of the entire village isn’t even planned yet. The two parks that are open aren’t really ready for visitors and there is no information on when the other two will be built. It didn’t have the grand opening feel that I got when I visited Pavilion Park, Beacon Park, or Orchard Hills. I found it hard to evaluate the village from a buyer’s point of view because there wasn’t enough information about the village to really know what it would look like when it was finally built out.