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Published Sunday, September 8, 2002

The planned build-out development of Rancho Murieta may not get under way until 2004, Murieta Holdings developer Robert J. Cassano says.

Cassano gave the new estimate in response to questions asked before the televised portion of the September “town hall” meeting Thursday night.

The televised meeting set a record for brevity, lasting about two minutes. “August was a very quiet month in the development arena,” Cassano explained on-camera.

The off-camera portion lasted more than 30 minutes as Cassano discussed issues that included the development agreement among the Rancho Murieta Association, Murieta Holdings and the Pension Trust Fund of the Operating Engineers, a river crossing to connect North and South, and cable television service for his development.

He said the county has “not yet finished or released to us” the environmental impact review for two proposed subdivisions, which total 333 homes. He said he expected to have the environmental document in time for discussion at the October meeting.

Gerry N. Kamilos, Cassano’s partner in Murieta Holdings, was not present.

Murieta Holdings submitted tentative maps for two subdivisions, The Residences of Murieta Hills and the three Retreat projects, to county planning in February 2001. The developers had predicted public hearings on the maps would begin this spring and conclude with the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors granting approval by the end of this year. However, the public hearings have yet to be scheduled.

The process has been a slow one. The projects have separate maps, but “they’re going through the system at the same pace,” Cassano said.

Before construction can begin, the developers need to finalize the maps. They also must negotiate with the Community Services District on infrastructure requirements, including the expansion of the present water treatment plant to provide water for their development.

“The main thing that will determine the timing is the public hearing process,” Cassano explained. “What other conditions may be imposed, you don’t know yet.

“We could have 50 homes maybe under way on the North next year, but what’s more than likely though is the larger number of homes will start from 2004 on.”

The Residences of Murieta Hills plan calls for about 235 homes to be built in the area bounded by Puerto Drive, Guadalupe Drive, Escuela Drive and Stonehouse Road. Cassano said Murieta Holdings is negotiating with two builders to build those homes, which the developers say would be high-end production houses designed for families.

The three Retreat projects add up to 95 single-family homes age-targeted for empty nesters and affluent retirees. They are clustered around the 1st, 2nd, 9th and 18th holes of the North golf course and the driving range. Murieta Holdings would built the Retreat projects, which are modeled after Crocker Grove, a village in the Gold River development. Cassano said people who already live in Rancho Murieta have expressed the most interest in the Retreat properties.

Cassano said Murieta Holdings plans to develop a total of 1,093 units on the North. In addition to the three Retreat projects and Murieta Hills, six more residential subdivisions are planned, as well as a 50-acre commercial site across Highway 16 from Murieta North.

This is the remaining property owned by the PTF, the original developer of Rancho Murieta.

“You’d end up with a little over 4,000 home sites in the community when it’s all built out,” Cassano said. This is about 20 percent fewer homes than what’s approved for Rancho Murieta as a planned development community, and it reflects reductions in densities proposed by Murieta Holdings, he pointed out.

Development agreement

For some time now, the agreement being negotiated by the RMA, Murieta Holdings and the PTF has been said to be in the final stages of negotiation. Thursday night Cassano said, “It’s something that we want to have in place, but it’s not something the county requires for development. … It’s a self-imposed development agreement between the North development community and the RMA.”

An outline of the development agreement was made public almost two years ago, at the 2000 RMA membership meeting. It’s now also referred to as the mutual-benefit agreement. The document will be released to the public for comment before it is signed by the RMA board.

The agreement obligates the developers to rebuild the North Gate, to add a third gate on Escuela Drive, and to make contributions to the Parks Fund to build a community center and a swimming complex. The new subdivisions would pay RMA dues, although the new development would have its own master homeowners association and would not annex to the RMA. The new subdivisions would have the use of the RMA’s private streets as well as use of the parks and common area.

The RMA included many of the provisions of the development agreement in its comments to the county on the tentative maps for the Retreat projects and The Residences of Murieta Hills last year.

The Community Services District has supported the RMA in its negotiations by refusing to begin substantial negotiations with the developers on infrastructure issues, including supplying treated water for the development, until the development agreement is signed.

River crossing

“You have a developer on the South with a condition they might not be able to fulfill,” Cassano said, in response to a question about using the Yellow Bridge and golf course property to connect North and South.

The county has conditioned maps on the South with the requirement that a river crossing must be in place by the time the 601st house is built. That’s a number South developer Reynen & Bardis will reach in its next phase of development.

Cassano remarked that Reynen & Bardis “are selling everything they put out there.” He estimated “they will do about 130 homes a year unless they’re stopped cold by this 601 issue with the bridge crossing."

“The RMA would certainly like the North development team to make some kind of commitment that would solve the South developer’s problem," he said. "I don’t know how you can do that, to tell the truth. There’s a condition on those maps that we have nothing to do with.”

The golf courses and the Yellow Bridge are owned by the PTF and leased by the Country Club. As the developer of the remaining PTF property, Murieta Holdings is an agent for the PTF.

In July, the Country Club board of directors unanimously rejected a plan to create a pedestrian/bicycle/cart path along the 17th and 18th holes of the South course and allow shared use of the Yellow Bridge, which is now reserved for golfers.

“PTF has always said they will cooperate in granting an easement over any properties they own as long as all the groups -- the Country Club being the prime one, obviously -- have an agreement. …The land is subject to a lease. They, the Country Club, need to concur with any kind of travel across that leased land. … (PTF) can’t do that unilaterally,” Cassano said.

The RMA disagrees with that position. A legal opinion obtained by the association states that the PTF has the right to permit the construction of a path without the Country Club’s approval. The opinion is based on ordinances and on provisions of the existing lease between the PTF and the Country Club. The legal opinion also states that a public right of way exists on the Yellow Bridge.

Cable TV and new development

Would the new development hook up to the same cable TV system the rest of the community has?
Under the proposed development agreement, the new subdivisions would be paying for basic cable as part of the dues they would pay the RMA.

“It could be an independent (cable TV) system too. I couldn’t tell you why it would be at this point, but it could be,” Cassano said. “There’s nothing to prevent that, but I don’t know why you would do it that way.”

The new subdivisions would be wired and tied into the existing cable system at the developer’s expense.

Doug Mack, RMA cable TV manager, who was taping the “town hall” meeting for Channel 5, said the association has designed a cable system for the new Reynen & Bardis subdivisions on the South. He said the system is designed to offer much greater capacity than what’s currently available in the rest of the community.

The developer is paying all the costs for the system. Reynen & Bardis also paid a share of the new fiber-optic cable run that goes from the cable TV operations center on the North to Murieta South. The fiber optic link is characterized as the backbone of the RMA’s communication system.

Cassano asked if the association would offer two-tier service to allow the newer subdivisions to make use of the greater capacity. The system would accommodate digital channels, offering many more choices and much-improved picture quality.

Mack said the association hopes to upgrade the bandwidth capacity for the cable TV system in the older sections of Rancho Murieta in the next year or so with the profits generated by the RMA’s successful broadband operation, but there are no plans to offer a two-tier level of service.

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