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Home designs OK'd for long-delayed subdivision
• 38 homes to go in south of Sinclear Elementary School
Bright Homes French Country
The designs of the proposed homes for Cambridge Estates was reviewed and approved by the Ceres Planning Commission on Monday evening. This is the French Country theme design.

In a further sign that home construction is on the verge of occurring in Ceres, the Ceres Planning Commission approved the proposed home designs for Cambridge Estates on Monday as the subdivision nears reality.

“They finally came in,” Senior Planner James Michaels told the commission two weeks ago. “You may recall back in 2020 the commission approved a time extension for the map and they’ve been working steadily on that and they finally got their home designs in.”

The commission approved the Planned Community Development Plan in a 4-0 vote. Chairwoman Laurie Smith was absent.

The infill project site is located south of Hackett Road south of Sinclear Elementary School and west of Morgan Road. The new homes will be located next to existing single-family homes.

Plans to build a 38-home residential subdivision – first approved in 2002 – were kept alive two more years in a July 2020 unanimous Ceres Planning Commission vote. In 2015 the commission approved a two-year time extension for a Vesting Tentative Subdivision Map to subdivide 8.26 acres into 38 single-family lots at 1200 and 1206 Hackett Road. Another extension was granted in 2018 but the commission was told that owners Surgit Singh and Ranjeet Talwana wanted to sell the property to someone else to build the homes but needed the project to have a valid map.

Michaels showed the three single-story home designs, one model sized at 1,600 square feet, another at 1,835 square feet and the largest at 2,059 square feet. There will be five designs available with 15 earth tone color schemes but Bright Homes will focus on three themes – Spanish, farmhouse or French country. Most will include rock veneer designs incorporated into the design.

“We are in support of this development plan,” said Michaels. “We believe there’s high quality building materials with architectural features that complement the surrounding area.”

Dave Butz of Bright Homes said the project was acquired last summer “and we’ve been working diligently on it ever since.” He later said Bright plans to start building homes beginning in August.

Kachel said he liked the mixtures of three sizes and that “it speaks to the market in a good and healthy way.”

San Pedro Avenue resident Nick Maynard expressed concern about how the new homes will further impact traffic on Morgan Road. But Bob Kachel, who was running the meeting, told Maynard that the project was already approved and the commission was only tasked with considering the design of the homes. He was directed to speak to Acting Public Works Director Sam Royal to look at how the city plans to build infrastructure to accommodate future traffic.

After the vote was taken, Kachel said he likes the project.

“It’s good to see that after all these years something is going to happen on the ground and we all know the housing shortage in California and every one of these will help just that little bit so it’s good to see that happening. And thank you, Bright Development.”