Laguna Hills / South Orange County
Laguna Hills has no single grocery corridor. Oakbrook Village on Avenida De La Carlota, next to I-5, is the one catalog center with a confirmed grocer (Trader Joe's) and a good cross-section of shop tenants. Smart & Final on Moulton Parkway and Ralphs on Paseo de Valencia cover the south and east sides of the city. The site to watch is the former Laguna Hills Mall just north of Oakbrook Village, where the owner's proposed 2026 changes to the Village at Laguna Hills plan assume a 35,000 SF grocery anchor.
Population
30,740
Median HHI
$128,851
Median age
41.7
Homeownership
70%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates.
Primary retail corridors
Alicia Parkway · El Toro Road · La Paz Road · Paseo de Valencia · Moulton Parkway
Specific shopping centers in Laguna Hills that already carry credible co-tenancy for this use. Listed in approximate order of fit.
24231–24321 Avenida De La Carlota
Anchors / key tenants: Trader Joe's, REI Co-op, Road Runner Sports, See's Candies
Size: 130,000 SF
20-acre, roughly 130,000 SF center owned by Fritz Duda Company and anchored by Trader Joe's and REI Co-op. A 2015 redevelopment phase added apartments and more retail. Available suites are small-shop sized rather than large-format boxes.
24801–24881 Alicia Parkway
Anchors / key tenants: national grocery store (opening)
Repositioning around a national grocery anchor; suits service retail and food positioned around the future grocery footfall.
Existing operators are the most honest comp for whether a use can support Laguna Hills rents. These are publicly visible grocery-anchored retail space businesses currently trading in the market.
Trader Joe's (store 39)
Oakbrook Village, 24231 Avenida De La Carlota, Suite 100, Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Listed on Trader Joe's own locator. Owner Fritz Duda Company lists Trader Joe's, REI Co-op, Road Runner Sports and See's Candies as Oakbrook Village's anchors, on 20 acres with close to 130,000 SF of retail and a stated parking ratio of 5.03 spaces per 1,000 SF.
Smart & Final (store 737)
26560 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Listed on Smart & Final's own store page, open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The store's map point sits near the south end of Moulton Parkway toward La Paz Road.
Ralphs (store 223)
25539 Paseo de Valencia, Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Shown as 'Ralphs Grocery #223' with a market health permit in the Orange County Health Care Agency food facility list dated February 2023. Ralphs' own store pages did not load for us, so current operation was not confirmed from the grocer.
01
Zoning: Laguna Hills has no separate supermarket row in its use tables. 'Retail/service business' is permitted by right in the CC (Table 9-28.020), FC (Table 9-26.020) and NMU (Table 9-29.020) districts and needs a site development permit in MXU (Table 9-30.020). Section 9-10.050 says unlisted uses are prohibited unless the Community Development Director adds them by similarity, so get Planning's written confirmation that your grocery format is 'Retail/service business' before you sign.
02
Oakbrook Village's stated 5.03 spaces per 1,000 SF works out to about 1 space per 199 sq ft, which is essentially the code minimum for general retail in Table 9-44.A (1 per 200 sq ft of gross floor area). That table also adds restaurant-rate parking once restaurants pass 10% of a center's floor area or any single restaurant passes 1,000 sq ft. Ask Fritz Duda for the current parking allocation before adding a grocer's prepared food or seating area.
03
Oakbrook Village availability on the owner page ranges from 515 SF (H-4) to 10,018 SF (Building E), with 7,500 SF in Building F. A full-size grocer will not fit there today, but a specialty or small-format grocer could look at Building E.
04
Village at Laguna Hills (former Laguna Hills Mall, about 68 acres at El Toro Road and I-5): the April 21, 2026 fiscal impact analysis for owner MGP Fund X Laguna Hills, LLC's proposed modification assumes 138,700 SF of new retail, including a 35,000 SF grocery store anchor and a 28,000 SF Nordstrom Rack. The city's case USE-0239-2025 was scheduled for a joint City Council and Planning Agency public hearing in July 2026. These are planning assumptions, not signed leases, and the property is in the Village Commercial district, where Table 9-10.050 defers every use to the Urban Village Specific Plan.
05
Permits and timing: under Table 9-92.030 a conditional use permit or major site development permit is decided by the Planning Agency after notice to owners within 300 feet, while a minor site development permit is a Community Development Director letter. The city's review handout estimates 60 to 90 days after a complete application for Planning Agency cases and about 30 days for administrative cases.
06
Every new tenant needs a Certificate of Use and Occupancy. Laguna Hills does not issue a traditional business license, and the COUO page asks tenants to confirm zoning with the Planning Division before signing a lease. The fee for a COUO without construction is $250.10.
Zoning, licensing, and demographic figures on this page come from the public records below. Codes and licenses change, so confirm with the city and the licensing agency before you sign.