• Pop-up window: Click here for archive of development coverage -- news, maps, photos and more See what your neighbors think in Community Views Updated Monday, December 9, 2002 Published Friday, December 6, 2002 The long-anticipated supermarket and drug store complex promised by new development in Rancho Murieta may be only two or three years away. That was the message two dozen audience members received at Thursday’s monthly “town hall” meeting held by Murieta Holdings developers. While the supermarket and the drug center have been talked about for the past two years, the plan unveiled held a few surprises, including 200 homes and a site for the Rancho Murieta Community Church. Robert J. Cassano of Murieta Holdings turned the meeting over to Douglas Wiele of Foothill Partners, who described a mixed-use development for the 50-plus acres of commercial property located across Highway 16 from Murieta North. The project has been named Murieta Gardens. Foothill Partners -- “four and a half of us and a Dalmatian,” Wiele said wryly -- develops neighborhood and community shopping centers, mainly in Northern California. Wiele has been in the business since 1976, and formed Foothill Partners in the late 1990s. The offices are located in El Dorado Hills. “Frankly, a 52-acre commercial piece is an enormous piece of commercial property,” he said, adding that much land would typically support a shopping center of 550,000 to 600,000 square feet. “(That’s) a massive number of stores,” he said, pointing out that this area hasn’t grown to the point where it could support that many businesses.

Enlarged map here Facts from the commercial development plan Total site: 53.1 acres Shopping center Building area: 108,915 square feet Parking: 494 spaces Office Building area: 12,000 square feet Parking: 58 spaces Housing Area: 30.5 acres gross Homes: 216 lots Park area: 5.8 acres Church Area: 1.7 acres gross Self storage Area: 7.1 acres

Instead, the plan proposes a little more than 100,000 square feet of shopping.

Wiele said Foothill Partners first talked to representatives of the Pension Trust Fund, owners of the property being developed by Murieta Holdings, in 2000.

He described the current concept as “neighborhood retailing. It doesn’t go much beyond that.”
Wiele said negotiations are well along with a “nationally recognized” homebuilder, a self-storage operator and four operators of food stores.

He would not identify the companies he’s talking with, but in response to a question from the audience, he identified one of the grocery operators as the Sexton family, operators of Plaza Foods Supermarket.

Wiele gave a low-key presentation of the plan for the new commercial center.

Douglas Wiele of Foothill Partners offered two possible approaches for the commercial space -- one that reflects the area's agricultural roots, top, and one that's more modern and residential. He asked the audience which it preferred. "When you live in Rancho Murieta, where do you think you live? Is it country or country club?" he asked. The several audience members who voiced an opinion all chose the second option.

The 52-acre site is whittled to 12 acres for the market, drug center, a professional office building, shops, restaurants and services.

The balance of the site is residential, with approximately 200 homes, ranging from 1,500 to 2,500 square feet in size, on smaller lots, Wiele said. He said the single-family housing has a proposed density of 6.5 units per acre with a price range of $300,000 and up.

By way of contrast, the newly built home areas on the South have a density of 3.1 units per acre.

Wiele described the housing as appealing to a “move-down market … to supplement the neighborhoods that are here.” It is undecided whether the development will be gated.

There will be a 13-acre buffer between the housing and the Rancho Murieta Airport. The buffer would be parkland and self-storage units, Wiele said.

A site will be donated to the Community Church for the construction of a permanent facility of its own. The church now shares a building with Fire Station 59.

Pastor Dave Zimbelman came to the podium to say, “On behalf of the church, I just want to publicly say thank you.” The audience applauded. A sizable portion of the audience was associated with the church.

Wiele said, “We’re prepared to do what needs to be done to fit in with the community. … We want to be a part of the neighborhood and we also want to create a neighborhood.”

He said the development would be governed by its own homeowners association. Would the residents have access to Rancho Murieta North or South? “We have not bargained for any access rights in Murieta North or South,” he replied.

Foothill Partners has an investor partner, Regency Centers, to carry out the shopping center development. Wiele said Regency Centers has “lots of financial strength” and expressed confidence that the project is viable commercially, financially and “permit-wise.”

He said there had been three meetings with county planners and other meetings with airport regulators, Caltrans representatives, and the Rancho Murieta Community Services District.
“We’re pretty far down the road and we’re pretty optimistic,” he said.

Contacted Friday, CSD General Manager Ed Crouse said he met once with Foothill Partners a few weeks ago. “Technically, they don’t have water supply entitlements for all that development,” he said. “The good news is, because there’s a reduced density on the North, there is an opportunity for those properties to transfer (water) entitlements over to that property.” He added that it would be a “voluntary transfer” worked out between the property owners and kept track of by the CSD.

Crouse said the total build-out number would be “bumped up” to 4,300 from the 4,100 figure Murieta Holdings had projected. In the original plan for the community, total build-out was projected at 5,200.

In addition, the CSD plans to expand the capacity of the water treatment plant by 2004 to satisfy the needs of new development on the North and South. The district is also investigating drilling wells or adding a reservoir for additional water capacity to accommodate growth. “They will have to pay their fair share” for both projects, said Crouse.

Wiele said plans will be submitted to the county in January. “If we get through the county in a year, we’ll start construction in the spring of 2004 and then we’ll open in the fall,” he said after the meeting. The timing is also dependent on the pace of other development in the community, he noted. “The supermarket in particular is dependent on having a few more houses here.”

Wiele said he welcomes community input on the design for the shopping center. He can be reached at 939-9890 or dwiele@foothillpartners.com.

Other matters that were discussed at the meeting include the following.

Request for custom homes at Murieta Hills

Rancho Murieta Association Director Jack Copeland asked Cassano if custom houses couldn’t be built to border the Residences of Murieta Hills development. Cassano explained that the plan calls for selling the property to two large builders and Murieta Holdings is not in position to dictate to the builders whether the houses built are custom or production.

In a phone conversation Monday, Cassano's partner in Murieta Holdings, Gerry N. Kamilos, added, "We do dictate architectural design, whether they build custom or production housing."

In a separate phone interview Monday, Cassano expanded on his remarks to Copeland and made it clear that, while the potential exists for custom home development in Murieta North, the number of custom homes actually built will depend on the market.

“The ability to build custom homes on the North is always there. … If there are no buyers for custom home lots beyond what we do at (Lake) Calero, I don’t think you’ll see many custom home sales occur,” Cassano said. “I think, though, that there will be (a demand).”

He said he thought it was “more than likely” that the demand for custom homes at Calero would continue into development at Lake Chesbro, Lake Clementia and several other areas. Cassano said the densities proposed for those areas are low enough to easily accommodate a custom product in terms of lot size. “There might end up being 300 custom homes. … But you don’t really know for sure,” he concluded.

Cassano said Calero is the only custom home development planned at this time. Murieta Holdings plans to develop up to 102 custom homes with an “old world” design theme in a vineyard setting on acreage at Lake Calero.

The Residences at Murieta Hills and the Retreats, the two projects now being reviewed by the planning department, will be production homes.

“The PTF (Pension Trust fund of the Operating Engineers) isn’t going to be selling custom lots. They want to bulk-sell areas,” Cassano said. “Calero is being bulk-sold to (Murieta Holdings) and we’re doing the program. If land developers want to come in and do a custom lot program, that’s fine, but they’d have to buy bulk from PTF.”

He said Murieta Holdings has had “a couple dozen” queries from residents about buying custom lots, but that interest alone wouldn’t sustain custom home development. “The market isn’t custom home buyers in Rancho Murieta. It’s custom home buyers in the region that want to live there,” he explained.

Lake Clementia swimming hole

When the community reaches full build-out, Lake Clementia may be designated a source of drinking water. In that case, it would cease to be the community’s swimming lake, since body contact would no longer be allowed.

After resident Jim Miller raised this question about the future of Clementia, Copeland explained it was possible the swimming lagoon would be dammed off from the rest of the lake and made into a self-contained swimming area.

No cost analysis for the project has been done to date, and it does not appear in the master plan for the community’s parks.

Copeland said it was possible the aquatic complex planned for the community would help fill the need for a swimming area.

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