BACK TO THE FUTURE (AGAIN)
	MARCH 2004

by Cindy Ehling
Photos by Brad Shifflett

Time for me to get back to the future and talk about what is in store for East County residents. This month I'm providing some amazing information for developments that are up and coming in Discovery Bay.

Virgil Koehne, who is General Manager of the Discovery Bay Community Services District, recently provided information of what appears to be an ongoing housing development boom.

HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS
If you haven't driven down Bixler Road north of Hwy. 4 in the past couple years, brace yourself for an amazing revelation the next time you do so.

My friend likes to say that houses go up around here like "toadstools in a wet lawn." At any rate, it is a bewildering experience to see large homes, many completely finished, stretching into the distance as far as the eye can see. These beautiful and shining rows are standing in a place that was just sod and weeds when we had our last presidential election.

Discovery Bay West — Hofmann Land Development Company, who has been developing Discovery Bay almost from the beginning, is now busily working on Discovery Bay West, which has become one of the area's largest developments. Virgil says that this project will ultimately consist of four phases, each with a separate "village" comprising a total of 2,000 homes.

The first phase, completed two years ago, created a "village" of 265 homes, Timber Point Elementary School, Slifer Park, and a new fire station.

The second village, called Lakeshore, will be a gated community. It will have almost 500 homes, a large lake with recreational amenities, and a rec center equipped with a large pool. Four builders (Hofmann Homes, Standard Pacific, Kiper homes and Meritage Homes) joined forces on this project and began building houses in 2002. They have already completed more than 300 new homes and have almost finished the rest of them.

The third phase, called The Lakes, has been under construction since last summer. It will include about 450 homes in a gated community. A large lake has already been built on the site and about half of the roads have been graded and paved. Construction will begin on the fourth phase of Discovery Bay West later this year.

Kellog Creek — If you want to get a series of great before and after pictures, take your camera to the Pantages property located along Kellogg Creek across from Discovery Bay. Attorney Mark Armstrong, is working on a development project that is currently working with the Reclamation District to widen Kellogg Creek and improve the banks, which currently are eroding and sending silt deposits into the Bay.

Emerald Homes Development Company will be working with many county and state agencies to develop this 160 acres property into a new community with 300 homes.

Many of the Kellogg Creek homes will be waterfront properties with water deep enough to provide a mooring site for the largest yachts the owners might reasonably (or even unreasonably) want to buy. Standard lots will also be available.

Virgil said that the development is being planned by Estate Homes of Los Altos, and are still making choices among several different layouts for their proposed development.

Ravenswood — Future Discovery Bay development will continue with a project on 60 acres located to the East of Discovery Bay West. Western Pacific Homes recently received approval by the County Board of Supervisors to build 203 new homes, complete with a 3-acre park on the site.

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