Aliso Viejo is a city in southern Orange County, California, and the county's most recently incorporated municipality, having become its 34th city on July 1, 2001. Home to about 52,000 residents, it occupies roughly 6,600 acres in the San Joaquin Hills near Laguna Beach and the Saddleback Valley, and it stands as one of the purest examples of a master-planned community in the region. The city's origins are unusually deliberate. In 1976 the Mission Viejo Company purchased the land to create a new planned community, laying out a master plan for 20,000 homes and a projected population of about 50,000. Orange County approved the plan in 1979, and Aliso Viejo was built out over the following decades as a coordinated network of residential villages, parks, schools, and a central Town Center. That comprehensive planning remains visible in the city's consistent landscaping, its trail network, and the generous share of land set aside for open space and recreation. Two institutions anchor Aliso Viejo's character. The Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, a roughly 4,500-acre preserve with about 30 miles of trails, wraps around the city and connects its neighborhoods to oak woodland, grasslands, and canyon habitats. Soka University of America, a private liberal arts college, brings a cultural and educational presence to the heart of the community. Students in the city's public schools are served primarily by the Capistrano Unified School District, with portions falling within Saddleback Valley Unified. Together, the city's planning, its preserved canyons, and its institutions give Aliso Viejo a polished, family-oriented suburban character with genuine access to open space.