The original master plan included a proposal for three new lakes with high-density condominiums clustered around these water features.

[4] Construction of the community began in 1971 and was branded as a rural enclave and alternative to the more dense subdivisions emerging in the Orange County basin with homes on large lots, hiking trails, a golf course, and low densities.

In 2007, the Irvine Company received approval for additional 2,500 homes just east of the 241 toll road on a parcel of land it has owned for over fifty years.

[7] However, in 2014 The Irvine Company donated the land for these additional 2,500 homes to the County of Orange to be preserved as open space.

[8] Anaheim Hills is located just south of Yorba Linda, California, opposite the 91 freeway at Imperial Highway.

On the northeast side the community extends past Gypsum Canyon, bordered by unincorporated areas of Orange County and Cleveland National Forest (east).

On the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Anaheim Hills is represented by the 3rd District's Donald P. Wagner.

[16] Students who live in the Anaheim Hills area are either directed to the Orange Unified School District or the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District[17] (houses that are north of the Santa Ana River and California State Route 91, but part of the city of Anaheim).

[citation needed] During the winter of 2005, a twenty-day rain event in Orange County led to not only flooding, but a landslide that caused the unstable hillside along the street of Ramsgate Drive to give way.

[citation needed] On Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 07:53 AM (PST), a fire possibly started by a stolen vehicle on the southbound 241 Windy Ridge Toll Plaza, destroyed over 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) in Anaheim Hills and the city of Orange.

[55] By 2:30, fueled by high winds and low humidity, it had burned 2,000 acres (3.1 sq mi) and was 0 percent contained.