Shady by the Numbers hady Canyon, in Irvine, is about one mile off the 405 Freeway, with the Sand Canyon Avenue offramp leading to one entrance, along Shady Canyon Drive. A second entrance is off Bonita Canyon near Newport Beach. Shady Canyon lies in northwestern San Joaquin Hills adjacent to the Laguna Canyon and Bommer Canyon natural open space areas. Total acreage: 1,070 acres comprise the built community, including the 300-acre golf course, with another 800 acres of permanently protected open space on the perimeter. Some 16,000 acres of permanent open space continues from Shady Canyon on three sides. Homesites: 400; about 50 of those are semi-custom villas. Custom homesite sizes: An acre equals 43,560 square feet. These homesites average 27,000 square feet; lots sell from $950,000 to $3 million. An 11,000-square-foot, custom home sold a few years ago for a city of Irvine record $10 million. Semi-custom villa sizes: 4,000 square feet on an average 11,000-square-foot lot. Prices begin at more than $1 million. The golf course: Golf architect Tom Fazio, who designed Pelican Hill along Newport Coast, also created Shady Canyon Golf Club. He is known for merging his work with the topography, which in this case required working with and around the numerous boulders, oak trees, Sycamore groves and natural sweeping valleys. Fairways and greens are routed around rocks and ravines. The course comprises 300 acres, about the twice the space of a typical golf course. The private, 7,012-yard, par-71 course with Shady Creek and East Shady Creek running through it is not for the feint of heart and challenging to those whose handicap is too high for comment. The clubhouse has a full-service golf shop, locker rooms, boardroom, casual and formal dining rooms. Outside is a lawn area for private receptions. A fitness and swim facility, some 6,700 square feet, is adjacent to the clubhouse area. The clubhouse's architecture was inspired by Wallace Neff, who helped establish the architectural reputation of Santa Barbara and designed many Southern California homes. One of the most impressive and historic was built for the Doheny family on what is now the campus of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula. Neff designed numerous homes from San Marino near Pasadena to Montecito and into the city of Santa Barbara. In the clubhouse, archways and colorful tile help accent the look. About those fees... Membership fees for Shady Canyon Golf Club: $185,000 for property owners; nonresidents pay $220,000. For a social membership, from $30,000 for property owners to $35,000 for nonproperty owners. The plan is to cap golf membership at 400 members and social membership to 400 members. Social members have access to the fitness and swim facility, dining and limited number of golf rounds per year (social members must play the course with golf members). Comparison: Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, considered one of the best, and most exclusive, clubs in the region, charges $200,000 for a corporate membership. There are just under 500 members. Big Canyon's membership fee is $170,000. Sources include: The Irvine Co., Riviera Country Club, Orange County Register (July 25, 2001), and Internet research.

The Dodgers' Green

Shawn Green, 30, the Dodger star, didn't need much incentive. He already knew the lay of Orange County's land, having been raised in nearby Tustin. He, his wife Lindsay, and 1-year-old daughter Presley plan to move into their Tuscan Farmhouse-designed home, on two lots of nearly 2 acres, in fall 2005.

For a player who could live anywhere, he has. The couple currently live in Newport Beach; he has lived in pricey Pacific Palisades and Santa Barbara.

"We have tried a few other places and we always end up coming back home," Green says. Lindsay was born and raised in Newport Beach.

"It's hard to live anywhere else," he says. "All of her and my family are close by."

As the couple looked around for a long-term residence, they kept "peeking" at Shady Canyon. "We loved it right from the get-go," Green says. "There is just so much room; it's so much different from anything else in the area."

As with others who speak of Shady Canyon, the ability to buy a large swath of land is key. "We want to have a house that's spread out with a nice yard," Green says. The privacy of the place also is a draw. "It's nice to have an escape to your house, an escape from the rest of the world."

For those invited as guests, the Greens expect to create a cozy home within a large house. "We really want to have it geared toward the fun side, the entertainment side," Green says. "We want to make it a place where everyone will want to come and hang out on the weekends and watch the ballgames and have parties."

CEO haven

One of the draws may come from corporations looking to place their CEO in a desirable community with security, says Jack Kyser. He is chief economist for the L.A. County Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit business association that works on job retention in a five-county area.

"This is a unique type of development," Kyser says. "This gives Orange County a competitive asset. You can't match this in Arizona and I am unaware of anything like this in San Diego." The closest comparison, he believes, are the homes overlooking Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. Malibu has its issues with oceanfront property and public access challenges, and other big addresses, such as Beverly Hills and Bel-Air, all front to public streets. This, he says, has the added value of privacy and security - big items for CEOs and their companies.

"Corporate decisions are made on where a CEO may live," Kyser says. "And if you have something that has a unique ambiance, exclusivity, and interesting neighbors, this will be very, very appealing."

"If you have a corporate CEO making a lot of money, he can go in and buy one."

Big places also draw big names. Gov. Schwarzenegger has visited Republican Assemblyman John Campbell's Shady Canyon home. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have played the golf course.

Getting in golf

A huge draw for homeowners, and those who are not, is Shady Canyon Golf Club, the first private 18 holes on the Irvine Ranch since Big Canyon near Fashion Island opened in 1971.

While those who get to play both courses will be the ultimate arbiters of which is the more challenging, Shady Canyon trumps all Orange County private courses in membership fees. It costs $185,000 for a homeowner to join; $220,000 for all others.

Shady Canyon's course designer, Tom Fazio, also designed Pelican Hill along Newport Coast. Here he incorporated 300 acres for the par-71 course, which opened in December 2002. In the past 14 months, the first homeowners have moved into custom homes that frame the golf course's rugged terrain.

Somewhere along the fourth hole, where a golf cart shares space with the canyon's numerous outcroppings of rock, cactus and shrubs, the sounds on a recent day were probably exactly what Fazio and The Irvine Co. expected. There was the chirping of birds and rustle of other wildlife and, in the distance, the hammering of homebuilders. As one gazes across the golf course, there are no homes being built against the fairways - which is the usual selling point in golf club communities. In fact, no home will be within 300 feet - that's a full football field - of a fairway. This creates a golf course that embraces the open space and keeps the rural feel that often is lost when rooflines compete with golf balls. In Shady Canyon, even the few homes that now are fully framed or near completion are hard to spot on the hillsides. They blend in, because building guidelines forbid anything too high or too ostentatious. Design cues are limited to Tuscan Farmhouse, Provence, Andalusian, Adobe Ranch, Santa Barbara or Spanish Colonial designs.

While it is quiet here now - only about 50 of Shady Canyon's projected 1,000 residents have moved in - this bucolic silence is expected to remain once the final construction work is wrapped in about five years.

Shady Canyon is moving forward in four phases. Phase one, with about 100 custom lots, is nearly sold out; this is where the first finished homes are now being occupied. In lower terrain, there are some semi-custom villas that have been sold for more than $1 million each. A second phase is just now getting underway; two homes are under construction. The third phase has just opened for sale; the fourth phase has not yet been released.