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| Tracy Press, Saturday, June 21, 2003 |
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| MOUNTAIN HOUSE ACTIVITY TO INCREASE |
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Activity in and around the new community of Mountain House will increase next week, starting with the planning approvals for the next residential villages and continuing the preliminary planning meeting for the next big planning area. By the end of the week, the builder of the first homes expects to close the first sale.
On Tuesday, the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors will consider some amendments to the Specific Plan 1, the first of three planning areas in the 4,700-acre community. Those updated planning maps are for the next two villages, E and G, which gained approval from the county planning commission on May 29.
“The approvals (Tuesday) are just for minor amendments,” said Eric Teed-Bose, director of planning for Trimark Communities, developer of Mountain House. “Then we’ll be ready to go into design of infrastructure.”
That will enable Trimark Communities to seek approval of its final subdivision maps for the two villages, which will cover 589 acres and include more than 1,900 houses, along with about 40 acres for high-density development. It also will include two new schools and an 11-acre park next to Mountain House Creek, which will take on a park-like atmosphere as one of the central features of the new development.
Next week is also when Lennar Homes, builder of the first houses in Wicklund Crossing, the first village in Mountain House, expects to close the sale of the first house in the new community.
“For us it’s really exciting,” said Alison Herman, sales director for Lennar Homes. She noted that the builder has five projects within the first planning area, which will include nearly 1,000 homes and about 500 apartment units. Most houses will sell from the high $300,000s to mid-$500,000s.
“I know we’re tracking six a month at Serenade and five or six at Liberty,” she said, naming two of the five product lines. “We’re going to be averaging about six a month in all of the communities.
“The demand is so great and so tremendous. Obviously now we have the edge on the marketplace because there’s no one else building out there.”
Craig Baxter, who lives in Stockton and works in Livermore, expects to move into his new single-story home in August. He said Mountain House seemed like the best option for reducing his commute while giving his son a good place to grow up.
“When I saw Mountain House open up, I pursued it and was first picked in the lottery, so I’m pretty fortunate. Mountain House was a good compromise.”
Teed-Bose said the commercial and industrial aspects of the new town are starting to come together as well. That includes and 11,800-square-foot commercial building, which is among 30 commercial parcels between Mountain House Parkway and DeAnza Boulevard.
“Right now we’re trying to find the right uses for the right mix of jobs,” he said, adding that first businesses could open in Mountain House sometime next year.
In all, Mountain House will have about 16,000 houses among 12 development areas, built over 25 years. Trimark is planning most of the Mountain House development, and the next specific plan will include two more residential villages on the north side of Grant Line Road, another on the south side of Byron Road along the Alameda County line and four more in the larger area between Byron Road and Old River.
Rancho Cordova developer Gerry N. Kamilos is getting ready to plan the southern end of the development, known as Specific Plan III, between Grant Line Road and Interstate 205. This will include two more residential villages and the 110-acre San Joaquin Delta College campus at Interstate 205 and the Alameda County line.
Kamilos is starting the planning process with a public meeting Wednesday evening at Lammersville School. That’s when the San Joaquin County Community Development Department staff wll show preliminary plans for the full 810 acres in Specific Plan III.
The community outreach meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. at Lammersville School, 16555 W. Von Sosten Road. |
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