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Published Saturday, May 3, 2003

The companies planning to build the Murieta Hills development met the Rancho Murieta public again at Thursday night's developers' "town hall" meeting, and this time things went a bit better.

At a session in February, development opponents delivered a crowd of 40 residents to see the first building plans unveiled by Warmington Homes and Woodside Homes. A dozen residents took the microphone that night, many of them criticizing the builders' offerings.

This time, each company sent a different presenter, and they unveiled different designs for a dozen Murietans.

Resident John Kershaw, who criticized both builders in February, gave them mixed reviews this time.

"Apparently, from the last meeting, Woodside didn't listen to any of us," he said. "(But) I do applaud Warmington for coming with very diverse floor plans and elevations."

Warmington and Woodside are in escrow to build 238 homes in Murieta Hills, bounded by Stonehouse Road and Guadalupe, Puerto and Escuela drives, at the northwest edge of the community. The project is going through the county review process.

Woodside would build 119 one-story homes on the west side of the land, along Stonehouse Road and around the community's cable tower.

Because the land is hilly and doesn't have many trees, one-story homes have been encouraged by Murieta Holdings partners Robert J. Cassano and Gerry N. Kamilos, who are managing the development project.

In introducing his plans, Scott Hoisington, president of Woodside, said the one-story design limitation – and the use of hipped roofs on all the designs -- made the drawings look similar.

He said the homes, with a dozen color offerings, will range in size from 2,500 to 3,000 square feet and sit on lots that average 80 by 120 feet.

One of the designs -- front, back and two sides -- from Woodside.

Responding to Kershaw's comments, Hoisington said the homes' siting on the lots will be staggered, "giving the street scene a much more interesting look." He said, "We aren't going to line up our houses straight down the street."

He compared the Rancho Murieta project to his company's work in Serrano, where they're building homes from 1,600 to nearly 5,000 square feet at prices from $300,000 to nearly $1 million.

Warmington, which didn't have plans last time, only photos of past projects, on Thursday unveiled a four-model curbside drawing with a mix of one- and two-story homes.

Jeremy Sutter of Warmington said the plans range in size from 2,834 to 3,545 square feet – and up to 4,053 square feet with an optional interior courtyard and split garage.

Each plan has three elevations -- Italian, French Country or Spanish – and a range of 10 color schemes.

Sutter said his company allows homeowners to do their own landscaping, and pays them a rebate if the landscaping is put in on time.

That way, homeowners put in different yards, different plantings and decorative walls and concrete to further mix up the look of the homes, he said.

As he did in February, resident Ted Hart established that each builder plans to build the homes on pads. "Unfortunately, this then reads back like a tract development," he told the builders.

Hart said flat pieces of land are fine for pads, but the hills are different. He said the existing North homes feel like "they sitting on the lots" and that the "land was left alone."

Kamilos disagreed that Murieta Hills will look like tract homes, saying that curvilinear streets, following the topography of the land, as well as varied setbacks for the homes will create "a very un-uniform look," one that "looks very custom."

Said Woodside's Hoisington, "Not in two years or five years, but sometime after that ... you'll barely be able to discern it was a pad-graded neighborhood."

Kamilos again emphasized that the Murieta Hills homes will be on lots "substantially larger" than the adjacent existing community.

Neither developer talked price at the meeting. At February's session, a Woodside official estimated the average cost in the mid-$300,000, and a Warmington official estimated his prices at $350,000 to $450,000.

When asked about the prices after Thursday's meeting, Warmington's Sutter said that when you figure in options and upgrades, the average prices here should be around $490,000 to $500,000.

"That's just the average price of a home," he said. "That's before the value of the landscape is added, as well as pools and things like that that people put in. … We're going to be comparable, compatible with what's out there in Rancho Murieta, for the most part. So will the quality of the homes and the architecture, I think, be compatible."

At the earlier meeting, when prices were quoted, "we were talking about a base price and people weren't too thrilled," Sutter explained.

As for the target buyer, he said it figures to be empty-nesters for the one-story, great room model and families for the two-story designs. "We don't anticipate younger families, necessarily, but established families, a little bit more mature," he said.

Hoisington of Woodside said the market could have an effect on price when they open for sales a year from now.

"What I'm going to tell you is very general," he said, "but I believe we'll be somewhere in the fours, possibly high threes, possibly low fives. That's based on what we know today."

He said Woodside saw empty-nesters and "aging baby boomers" as the primary market for its one-story homes.