HOUSING STARTS : Menifee California : Planned Community to Debut in Riverside

The Southland’s latest large-scale planned community, Menifee California, opens today in southwestern Riverside County with 10 housing developments by nine home builders.

Menifee Lake, a 35-acre artificial lake, is the centerpiece of the 2,000-acre development by the Lusk Co. of Irvine. The public is invited to the 2 p.m. inaugural ceremony at the community, at Newport Road and Interstate 215.

Menifee California is Lusk’s first residential development in which the firm has sold land to other builders, according to Wayne Klinck, Lusk’s project manager. The 43-year-old Lusk firm has acted as a land developer for its own home-building efforts and has created commercial projects with other companies doing the construction, he said.

When Menifee California is completed in a decade or so, it will have 16,000 residents in more than 6,100 houses and apartments in four themed villages, said Lusk spokeswoman Marty Reinfried.

All Price Ranges

“We’ll have everything from rental apartments to estate homes, in all price ranges, for buyers of all ages,� she said.

Besides the main lake, designed by J. Harland Glenn & Associates, the new town will also have a pair of 17-acre lakes on the 18-hole golf course designed by Ted Robinson. The course is scheduled for completion in the summer and will be open for limited public play. The 23,300-square-foot clubhouse at Menifee Lakes Country Club is expected to open late this year, Reinfried said.

Future elements of Menifee California include a campus of Mt. San Jacinto Community College on about 100 acres; about 75 acres for retail uses and about 85 acres for industrial and office space, she said.

Builders represented in Menifee California include Bramalea Homes, GLENFED Development Inc., Costain Homes, Woodcrest Development of Riverside Inc., Osborne Development Corp., Rielly Homes, Century American, Pulte Homes and Premier Homes.

Newport Beach Homes

Construction is under way at the 105-unit Maison de Fleur, a Fullerton development by RGC of Newport Beach. The development will offer three duplex-style “paired� house plans of 1,502 to 1,663 square feet, with three bedrooms, priced from $195,000-$225,000. Two phases totaling 32 units have been released, with all units reserved.

Designed by Danielian & Associates, the two-story units have two-car garages, landscaped and maintained front yards and private back yards. The development is open daily from 10 a.m. to dusk at the corner of Rosecrans Avenue and Emery Ranch Road, just east of Beach Boulevard.

Rancho Sierra Estates

Grading has been completed at Rancho Sierra Estates, a 35-unit development of four-bedroom, single-family houses by Boczanowski Inc., San Diego, near Lake Hodges in Escondido, between Rancho Santa Fe and Rancho Bernardo.

The houses are offered in five floor plans with 2,500-3,251 square feet, priced from about $330,000-$375,000. Southwestern/Mediterranean-style architecture is by Hallenbeck, Chamorro & Associates and Lynn Walters Johnson AIA Associates.

The sales office is open daily near Citracado and Del Dios Highway, reached from the westbound Via Rancho Parkway exit of Interstate 15.

U.S.-Japanese Venture

Coast Construction Co. and Kajima Development Corp. have broken ground on Summerfield at Coto, a 44-unit single-family development in Coto de Caza. Units are 2,700 to 3,500 square feet, tentatively priced from the mid- to high-$300,000s. The project is the first American-Japanese joint venture in the 4,000-acre master-planned residential community in southern Orange County.

Model homes are expected to be ready in the fall, according to Coast president Nat Harty. Architect Robert Earl is designing houses with Cape Cod, California Monterey and traditional exteriors.