By Eric Engelbert
In One Council Meeting, Tustin Cleared Two Shopping Centers for Over 1,300 New Homes
On January 7, 2025, the Tustin City Council voted to approve housing overlay districts at two of the city's most established commercial centers: Enderle Center on East 17th Street and The Market Place along Jamboree Road at the I-5. The two rezonings, approved within the same council session, allow up to 413 homes at Enderle Center and up to 900 homes at The Market Place on 18 acres of surface parking. No developer has proposed anything at The Market Place yet. But at Enderle Center, Newport Beach-based Burnham-Ward Properties is already moving. They are acquiring the 60,000-square-foot retail center from the founding Enderle family and plan a mixed-use project called Campo on 17th, with 100 for-sale townhomes and a remodeled retail core anchored by Zov's restaurant. The January 2025 rezoning is what made that deal possible. Track new development projects across Orange County here.
Why Tustin Had to Rezone These Sites
The January 2025 approvals were not discretionary decisions the city made on its own initiative. They were obligations. Under California law, every city must adopt a Housing Element that demonstrates it can accommodate its share of regional housing production, a number set through the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process. For the 2021 to 2029 planning cycle, Tustin's RHNA obligation is 6,782 housing units. To meet that obligation, the city's Housing Element must identify specific sites where those units can legally be built. If the existing zoning on a site does not allow housing at sufficient density, the city must rezone it.
Enderle Center and The Market Place were identified in Tustin's certified Housing Element as sites that would be rezoned to allow residential development. Both sites are large, underutilized in part (parking lots, aging retail), and centrally located relative to transit and jobs. Both required full Environmental Impact Reports before the city could proceed. Both EIRs concluded the projects would have significant environmental impacts, but the City Council adopted Statements of Overriding Considerations, a formal finding that the public benefits of meeting the city's housing obligation outweigh the identified impacts. That is not unusual for this type of program-level rezoning.
The rezoning does not guarantee anything will be built. It establishes that housing is legally permitted on these sites and sets a maximum density ceiling. A developer still needs to acquire the land or reach an agreement with the existing owner, design a project, apply for entitlements, and secure financing. But without the rezoning, none of that can happen at all.
Enderle Center: Built in 1977, Rezoned in 2025, Being Redeveloped in 2026
Enderle Center has been a fixture of East 17th Street since 1977. The Enderle family built it and held it for decades, making it one of the few remaining privately owned neighborhood retail centers in central Orange County. At its peak it counted 19 tenants, anchored by restaurants like Zov's, El Torito, and Crab Cooker. By 2025, El Torito had shut down its 13,000-square-foot location and Crab Cooker announced it would close at the end of its lease. The center's assessed value was approximately $15 million, or $95.87 per square foot, as of 2025.
The Housing Element rezoning applied a Housing Overlay (HO) district to Enderle Center's existing Planned Community Commercial Business zoning. The overlay allows up to 413 dwelling units across up to 7 acres of the property, while also preserving up to 205,603 square feet of nonresidential development. The vote on Ordinance 1550, the specific ordinance covering Enderle Center, was contested: the council adopted it on a split vote, with at least one member dissenting. The broader Housing Element Rezone package passed with less controversy.
The city's original Housing Element modeled the site at its maximum of 413 units, but the rezoning does not require that many. It only permits them. That distinction matters, because the actual developer coming in has a very different vision.
Campo on 17th: What Burnham-Ward Is Actually Planning
In May 2026, Newport Beach-based Burnham-Ward Properties announced it was acquiring Enderle Center from the Enderle family and planning a mixed-use redevelopment called Campo on 17th. Burnham-Ward is the developer behind Costa Mesa's South Coast Collection, the Dana Point Harbor revitalization, Paseo 17, and the Long Beach Exchange. Partner Steve Thorp said the project would "provide the city needed housing while preserving retail as the primary use for the property."
The Campo on 17th plan calls for 100 for-sale townhomes alongside 60,000 square feet of remodeled commercial space, a scaled-back residential count that Burnham-Ward requested through a General Plan Amendment to reduce the maximum from 413 to 100. The retail core will remain the primary use of the site. Zov's, the bistro and bakery founded by Chef Zov Karamardian in 1987 and one of Enderle Center's oldest original tenants, will remain and reopen in an expanded, remodeled space. New specialty shops, culinary offerings, boutiques, and fitness and wellness concepts are planned for the updated tenant lineup. A town green, mature specimen trees, water features, fire pits, and reconfigured parking and pedestrian circulation are all part of the vision.
Burnham-Ward aims to start construction before the end of 2026 and complete the project in late 2027. Once complete, they will own and manage the retail components alongside the 100 new townhomes.
The Market Place: 76.9 Acres, 18 Acres of Parking, and 900 Potential Homes
The Market Place is a different scale of opportunity. The shopping center at the intersection of Myford Road, Bryan Avenue, Jamboree Road, and the I-5 spans approximately 76.9 acres on the Tustin side alone and was developed by the Irvine Company starting in 1988. Its distinctive orange, purple, and pink stucco buildings became a visual landmark in East Tustin, and the center has operated continuously since Phase I opened on the Tustin side of Jamboree Road. Phase II on the Irvine side followed in 1996, making The Market Place a cross-jurisdictional retail destination straddling two cities.
The January 2025 rezoning targeted a specific 18-acre portion of the Tustin side of The Market Place: seven parcels consisting primarily of surface parking lots. The Specific Plan Amendment (SPA-2024-0001) to the East Tustin Specific Plan designated those 18 acres exclusively for High Density Residential development of up to 900 units. The General Plan Amendment (GPA-2024-0001) established that high-density residential is permitted within the Planned Community Commercial Business land use designation when authorized by the specific plan.
Enderle Center
7 acresUp to 413 units allowed. Burnham-Ward acquiring site in 2026 and planning 100 townhomes. Construction before end of 2026.
The Market Place
18 acresUp to 900 units allowed on surface parking parcels. Irvine Company owns the center. No developer proposal filed as of 2026.
The Irvine Company, which owns and operates The Market Place through its retail division, has not filed any residential development proposal for the rezoned acreage. The 18 acres of surface parking continue to function as parking for the shopping center. The rezoning creates the legal capacity; the timing of any actual project depends entirely on when and whether the Irvine Company or a successor decides to move forward.
What a Housing Overlay Actually Does, and What It Doesn't
The Housing Overlay (HO) district is a planning tool California cities use to satisfy their Housing Element site inventory requirements without completely replacing existing zoning. At Enderle Center, the overlay sits on top of the existing commercial zoning, adding residential as a permitted use rather than eliminating commercial uses. A developer can choose to build housing, mixed-use, or commercial, within the parameters the overlay establishes.
The numbers in the Housing Element are ceilings, not blueprints. The 413 units at Enderle Center and 900 units at The Market Place represent the maximum residential capacity those sites could theoretically accommodate, calculated to help Tustin demonstrate adequate site inventory to the state. They do not represent what will be built. Enderle Center illustrates this precisely: the city planned for 413 units to meet its RHNA math, but the actual developer, Burnham-Ward, is building 100. The rezoning still counted toward Tustin's housing element compliance, and the resulting development still adds housing, but at a scale the existing neighborhood can absorb without demolishing the retail character of the site.
At The Market Place, the 900-unit ceiling is even further from any current reality. No developer has proposed anything, no entitlements have been filed, and the shopping center continues operating as it always has. The rezoning simply ensures that when and if a developer approaches the Irvine Company about the parking lot acreage, the legal pathway for housing already exists.
Tustin's Housing Wave: Where These Rezonings Fit
The Enderle Center and Market Place rezonings are two pieces of a much larger housing effort the city has been building since the early 2020s. Tustin's 6,782-unit RHNA obligation covers the 2021 to 2029 planning cycle, and the city has been moving on multiple fronts simultaneously to show the state it is making progress.
Each of these projects represents a different model for how Tustin adds housing: large apartment developments at the Tustin Legacy master-planned community, for-sale homes replacing aging office buildings along 17th Street, and long-term rezoning that positions commercial centers for residential use over the coming decade. The Market Place rezoning is the longest runway of the group, but it covers the largest potential capacity. When the Irvine Company eventually decides to develop its 18 acres of parking along Jamboree, the groundwork is already laid.
Watch for developer filings at The Market Place, any updates from Burnham-Ward on Campo on 17th's construction timeline, and whether any other commercial sites in Tustin's pipeline move toward active entitlements. You can track all Tustin development activity on the OC New Developments page.
Buying or Selling in Tustin? The Market Is Moving Fast.
Tustin has more housing in the pipeline right now than at any point in recent memory, from 1,336 apartments at Tustin Legacy to 100 townhomes replacing a 1970s retail center on 17th Street. If you are tracking the Tustin market as a buyer, seller, or investor, having a clear picture of what is being built and where matters. We can help you navigate it.
