Developers Grant and Steve Alvarnez still have hopes of seeing homes constructed in their two-phased Whitmore Ranch subdivision project in east Ceres. But because nothing has happened to date, they sought another two-year time extension for Phase 2 at Monday’s Ceres Planning Commission meeting.
The commission voted 4-0 to approve an extension of the approval of the Phase 2 residential subdivision map of 8.4 acre with 46 homes. Now valid until and 2028, it’s the last extension allowed by state law.
In 2024, the commission granted an extension of Phase 1, first approved in 2021, to create 107 residential lots.
City Engineer Michael Beltran noted that the delays of Phase 1 construction are due to the subdivision improvement agreement needing to be updated, which is exactly what then City Manager Doug Dunford said in February 2024.
“As soon as I receive that updated copy back I will be taking that to the council for approval,” Beltran told the commission. He said the developer is talking to builders.
Commission Chairman Gary Condit called on the developer to answer, “Do you believe this will be your last time extension for this phase?” Grant Alvarnaz replied, “so many city managers we’ve had, get it? There’s been four or five so we’re doing our best.”
The project site was annexed 2014 when Art de Werk was acting city manager, and since then the city has been managed by Toby Wells, Tom Westbrook, Alex Terrazas and Doug Dunford.
The Courier reached out to Alvarnez for comment but he did not reply. However, in 2025, Alvarnez told the Courier that the project became mired with the changing demands of various city officials who came and went in that time. He cited the turnover of four city managers, five city engineers and three Community Development directors and two senior planners.
“So every new individual who came in made changes,” he noted last year. “They actually required us to redesign the subdivision which kicked the can down the road about a year and a half and added a ton of expense to our project costs to redesign the sewer line.”
He called the experience “very frustrating” and added “now you can imagine why houses in California are so expensive.”
Located south of Whitmore Avenue and east of Moore Road, the 94-acre Mitchell Ranch project will include 196 single-family homes built on 19 acres. An additional 6.4 acres will be filled by high-density apartments or condominiums that could result in 160 living units. The remaining property will consist of 5.2 acres of open space, including a bike and pedestrian corridor leading to the junior high’s western boundary. The La Rosa Elementary School and Cesar Chavez Jr. High School take up the rest of the acreage within the annexed area.
The low-density single-family residential lots will range in size from 5,000 to 8,727 square feet with the average lot size being 6,863 square feet; while the medium-density parcels will range from 2,211 to 2,648 square feet, with the average lot size being 2,429 square feet.
