Coto de Caza is a census-designated place and guard-gated private community in Orange County, California, United States. The population was 14,710 at the 2020 census. The CDP is a suburban planned community of about 4,000 homes and one of Orange County's oldest and most expensive master-planned communities. The project began in 1968, when it was envisioned as a hunting lodge, now the Lodge at Coto de Caza, and the community was completed in 2003.