When Richard Reese first saw “Plano Trabuco” in southeastern Orange County around 1980, he thought it was “the most beautiful place for a new community I can possibly imagine.”
Standing on a mountain top with a crew of planners and engineers, Reese gazed upon a mile-wide plain stretching 5 miles long, filled with mature sycamores and oaks with a view of Saddleback Mountain in the distance.
A life-long urban planner tasked with forming a plan for Rancho Mission Viejo, Reese then turned to his companions and suggested they say a prayer.
They needed to ask “that God will somehow give us the opportunity to do something worthy of this place,” he told an interviewer with the Cal State Fullerton Center for Oral and Public History 20 years later.
That place eventually became the city of Rancho Santa Margarita, and Reese was the town’s chief visionary.
In the years that followed, that cattle pasture sprouted homes and shopping centers, along with schools, parks, sports fields, trails and a library. It’s now home to 48,000 people.
As the community developed, city leaders kept consulting with Reese to make sure they were sticking to his vision for an “urban village” filled with gathering places so people could live fuller, connected lives.
The town eventually named a street after him — Richard Reese Way — and the mayor called him “the heart and soul of this community.”
The city’s ability to consult with the city’s master planner ended on Tuesday, Aug. 29, when Reese died after a brief illness. He was 95.
“He had big ideas that people could live better if they live close to nature,” said Reese’s widow, Linda Hudson.
Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Jerry Holloway called Reese “one of the smartest and nicest men I’ve ever met.”
Reese didn’t just design the town, which became an incorporated city in 2000. He lived there, taking daily hikes around Rancho Santa Margarita Lake.
“He is known by so many people, not only because…
Read the full article here
