Home maintenance in Midway City, unincorporated Orange County
Yes, Midway City is in Orange County, but it is not a city: it is about 390 acres of unincorporated county land in four pieces surrounded by Westminster, so the County of Orange is the building department. Three tiny mutual water companies each serve 200 to 300 homes here from a single deep well of their own, and fewer than four in ten homes are detached houses.
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Home maintenance help in Midway City
OakTend gives Midway City homeowners free home maintenance help during our preview: add your house once and get a reminder when each check is due. The checklist below needs no account.
Homes in Midway City, at a glance
- Population
- About 7,999 peopleACS 2024 5-year estimate (2020-2024), table B01003, for the Midway City census-designated place, with a margin of plus or minus 1,252; the profile by OC LAFCO (the county's Local Agency Formation Commission) of the four islands counts 8,894 residents. Source: Census Reporter, ACS 2024 5-year table B01003
- Median year built
- 1973Source: Census Reporter, ACS 2020-2024 five-year table B25035
Midway City sits close enough to the water to get marine air most mornings, so exterior finishes and outdoor metal age faster than they would inland, though not as fast as they do right on the sand.
When homes were built
- Homes counted
- About 2,862
- Built before 1950
- 8.6%
- Built in the 1950s
- 26.4%
- Built in the 1960s
- 8.6%
- Built in the 1970s
- 24.6%
- Built in the 1980s
- 9.4%
- Built in the 1990s
- 6.1%
- Built 2000 to 2009
- 2.8%
- Built 2010 or later
- 13.5%
The median year built is 1973, plus or minus 4 years, but neighbors on one street can be sixty years apart in plumbing and wiring.
Source: Census Reporter, ACS 2020-2024 five-year tables B25034 and B25035
Home types
- Detached houses
- About 37.8%
- Attached homes
- 14.6%
- Buildings of 3 or 4 units
- 14.3%
- Buildings of 5 or more
- Roughly 23%
- Mobile homes
- About 7.6%
These estimates have wide margins. With that many shared walls and roofs, the first question on a repair is often who owns it.
Who runs what
OC LAFCO treats Midway City as four unincorporated islands that Westminster could someday take in, about 391.60 acres in the First Supervisorial District. The County of Orange handles planning, code enforcement, street sweeping, library and animal control; the Sheriff handles law enforcement; the Orange County Fire Authority handles fire; the Midway City Sanitary District handles sewer and trash; and retail water is split among Westminster and three mutual water companies.
Source: OC LAFCO, Westminster Islands unincorporated areas profile (fiscal year 2023-24 data)
Three water companies
A fire authority bulletin revised July 9, 2026 says Midway City Mutual Water Company, Eastside Water Association and South Midway City Mutual Water Company each supply 200 to 300 homes from their own single deep well, with emergency connections to a neighbor or to Westminster. Its map puts Midway City Mutual between Beach Boulevard and roughly Monroe Street north of Bolsa Avenue, Eastside from there east to Newland Street, and South Midway in a strip south of Bolsa. Phone numbers: 714-532-9409, 714-894-8106 and 714-842-8080.
Source: Orange County Fire Authority, Informational Bulletin 02-21, Midway City fire water flow requirements
Midway City Mutual water
Midway City Mutual's 2025 report names one working source, Well 02 at 14741 Jackson Street, plus an emergency connection, and lists hardness at 163 ppm from a 2023 sample, about 9.5 grains per gallon by conversion. Its 2025 lead and copper round of 10 homes found no lead. The board meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.
Source: Midway City Mutual Water Company, 2025 Consumer Confidence Report, State Water Board portal
Eastside water
Eastside Water Association draws from Well 04 at 8341 Madison Avenue and lists hardness at 153 ppm from a 2023 sample, about 9 grains per gallon by conversion. Its board meets the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.
Source: Eastside Water Association, 2025 Consumer Confidence Report, State Water Board portal
Sewer district
The Midway City Sanitary District formed in 1939 under the Sanitary District Act of 1923, held its first board meeting on January 13, 1939 at the Fire Hall in Midway City, and opened bids for the original sewer mains on January 22, 1953. Its first territory ran from Hazard to McFadden and Hoover to Newland; today it covers 10.4 square miles, all of Westminster and Midway City.
Sewer lines
The district's regulations make house connections and street laterals the property owner's to maintain. Owner-occupied single-family homes, and duplexes or triplexes where the owner lives in a unit, can be reimbursed up to 50 percent of an approved lateral job, capped at $1,800. Apply with at least two written bids before work starts; the program ends each year when its budget runs out.
Source: Midway City Sanitary District, sewer lateral assistance program
Fire station
The fire authority's directory lists Station 25 at 8171 Bolsa Avenue, a career station established in 1935 with a daily captain, engineer and two firefighters, with a note that it has moved to Station 64 at 7351 Westminster Boulevard. Law enforcement is the Sheriff's North Patrol, non-emergency 714-647-7000.
Source: Orange County Fire Authority, operations and station directory
Real neighborhoods in Midway City
- Bolsa/Midway
- Beach/McFadden
- Bolsa/Pacific
- McFadden/Monroe
These are OC LAFCO's names for the four islands, not signs on a street, and they match the four pieces of the Census boundary. Bolsa/Midway, east of Beach Boulevard and south of Hazard Avenue, is the main one at 296.85 acres. Beach/McFadden (40.77 acres) is west of Beach and north of McFadden, Bolsa/Pacific (21.14 acres) is south of Bolsa and west of Beach, and McFadden/Monroe (32.84 acres) is south of McFadden.
Water, permits, and local rules in Midway City
Water
Your bill names your supplier: Westminster or one of the three mutual companies. The City of Westminster Water Division serves portions of Midway City; its latest report, on 2024 testing, shows hardness averaging 243 ppm, about 14.2 grains per gallon by conversion (range 134 to 363 ppm), from 100 percent groundwater that year. The mutual wells test softer, 163 and 153 ppm. For South Midway City Mutual the newest report with a hardness figure is for 2022, at 260 ppm, and the state's record shows it also buys water from Westminster. All of it is hard water.
Three mutual water companies and the City of Westminster, by address · Source: City of Westminster water quality report page (mutual company reports are on the State Water Board portal)
Permits
OC Development Services, part of OC Public Works, is the building department. Permits go through the myOCeServices portal or the permit counter in the County Service Center, 601 North Ross Street in Santa Ana (permit counter 714-667-8888, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; OC Public Works general office 714-667-8800, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; OCPWPermitting@ocpw.ocgov.com). The county typically requires permits for additions, kitchen and bathroom remodels, pools and spas, patios and decks, retaining walls, and electrical, HVAC and plumbing work. Under state law, the 2025 California codes took effect in unincorporated areas on January 1, 2026.
County of Orange, OC Development Services permit portal · Source: City building division
Hydrant flow limits
Hydrant tests in the Midway City Mutual system gave 320 to 390 gallons per minute at 20 psi, which the fire authority says is below the Fire Code minimum, on two 90,000 gallon tanks, 4-inch mains and 20 hydrants. Inside the shaded zone on its map, roughly Roosevelt Avenue to Bolsa Avenue along Adams, Jackson and Van Buren streets, no increase in building area will be approved, and other changes go case by case. Eastside tested at 800 to 900 and South Midway at over 1,500. Before paying for plans for an addition or an ADU (accessory dwelling unit, a small second home on the lot), call the authority's Planning and Development staff at 714-573-6100.
Source: Orange County Fire Authority, Informational Bulletin 02-21, revised July 9, 2026
Liquefaction
The California Geological Survey's April 15, 1998 maps for the Anaheim and Newport Beach quadrangles put essentially all of Midway City in a liquefaction zone: loose Holocene sandy soil with historic groundwater less than 40 feet down. The same layers show no Alquist-Priolo fault zone and no landslide zone.
Flood zones
FEMA panels 06059C0138J and 06059C0251J, effective December 3, 2009, show the whole community as Zone X, almost all of it the shaded 0.2 percent annual chance area and a small part reduced risk due to a levee. OC LAFCO counts about 2.6 miles of flood control channels in the main island.
Source: FEMA Flood Map Service Center, National Flood Hazard Layer
Wildfire zones
The State Fire Marshal's March 24, 2025 local map data classes the area as non-wildland, with no Moderate, High or Very High zone within about a mile and a quarter, so the state's defensible space and wildland building rules do not apply. The fire risk here is structural, which is why hydrant flow matters.
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Guides for Midway City homeowners
ADU (accessory dwelling unit) cost
Check hydrant flow first: part of the Midway City Mutual zone cannot add building area.
Water heater replacement cost
Well water runs about 9 to 15 grains per gallon, depending on your supplier.
Slab leak signs
About a quarter of the homes here date from the 1950s.
Orange County home maintenance checklist
Yard drains and gutters before winter, on flat Zone X ground with channels nearby.
Adding an EV charger, heat pump or solar? See electrical panel upgrade cost.
Maintenance that matters in Midway City
Repiping a house in Orange County
The median Midway City home was built in 1973. If a house that age has had more than one leak, read when a whole-house repipe makes sense.
Slab leak repair in Orange County
Found a slab leak sign in your Midway City home? See how the leak is found and fixed, and what insurance may cover.
How to clean your outdoor AC unit
Marine air near the coast wears out outdoor metal faster, the AC unit included. Clean it each spring.
Nearby cities
Questions from Midway City homeowners
What does the county want for a tankless water heater permit in Midway City?
A submittal checklist the county publishes asks for a plot plan, the unit's location, a gas line drawing and BTU calculations, filed through myOCeServices or the Santa Ana counter.
Who do I call about a sewer backup in the street?
The Midway City Sanitary District, at 714-893-3553. It runs the mains and trash service for Midway City and all of Westminster; the lateral from your house to the main is yours.
Is Midway City part of Westminster?
No. Westminster surrounds it, but the four islands are unincorporated county land. OC LAFCO, the county agency that approves city boundary changes, counts them as area Westminster could take in someday. That would need OC LAFCO's approval, and the services the County provides now would move to Westminster.
Which school districts serve Midway City?
OC LAFCO's profile lists Westminster School District for kindergarten through 8th grade and Huntington Beach Union High School District for 9th through 12th. Check your street address with the district before counting on a particular school.
Local facts on this page last checked .