Gold River, Sacramento County

Gold River is the brainchild of the visionary developer and builder Robert Powell, whose homes and neighborhoods are unmistakable. Over many years he experimented and perfected his style, and in the process he built a cult-like following of homeowners, one that supplies a constant stream of ready buyers for his homes.

The concept and plans actually started many years before, but Gold River came online in approximately 1983 to much fanfare. Long lines of potential buyers wrapped around the neighborhood for a chance to get on the list.

The reason for those lines was a genius move by Powell, and it was all about the schools. He rejected the idea of incorporating into a city, and used his influence instead to get Gold River residents into the San Juan School District, and most importantly its top high school, Rio Americano, plus the promise of a new elementary school to be built right in Gold River. He pulled it off even though Gold River is geographically connected to Rancho Cordova, with lesser rated schools, sits across the river from the San Juan District, and is roughly 12 miles from the high school. The long built-out neighborhoods of Carmichael and Fair Oaks, buyers who had yearned for a new home opportunity inside that school district, poured in. They camped in line along with the rest, waiting to buy.

Most subdivisions take a grid, modify it to the landscape, and try to squeeze as many lots per acre in for profit. Powell's brilliant design went the other way: 25 circular individual "villages", connected only by a couple of common roads, and all joined together by beautiful, natural, tree-filled greenbelts.

The greenbelts run 30 to as much as 100 feet wide, and each one holds a wide bike and walking path in the middle that wraps around the village and winds throughout the neighborhood, eventually leading to the town center or to the American River. When you walk there, you feel like you're in a park, complete with deer, wildflowers, the occasional coyote, and an assortment of other "critters". Along the way there are two large parks where peewee soccer and volleyball matches break out, and the streets themselves are extra wide, tree-lined, with medians and large, treed, grassy buffer strips separating the road from the village backyards.

Put it all together and you get Powell's vision of "nature and space". Word of mouth has it that many of his design concepts about space and nature, for neighborhoods and for homes, came back with him from his many trips to Japan, and it's a concept he sold very well. It works, and it works beautifully.

His homes are unmistakable; you can spot a Powell from a mile away, and it's not simply the style. In the middle of a Powell neighborhood every home looks the same, because every home is brown. The funny thing I always point out to clients, with a chuckle, is that there are actually four slightly differing shades of brown, and if you look, you can see them: a tan brown, a slightly darker tan, an olive brown, and a grey-brown. At first glance, though, you don't notice it at all.

Add in the weird one: because of the roofline and the elevation design, you can't tell a one-story from a two-story from the street. I'm not kidding. Only a trained eye can spot the markers. The landscaping everywhere is maintained by the association, with only approved designs and approved plants, so the yards all look exactly alike. I laugh with clients that it's like the old movie The Stepford Wives, where every home and family ends up exactly the same.

And because of the strictly enforced CC&Rs, you can't park in the driveways or on the street, which is also owned and maintained by the association, so the pristine, clean, almost sterile look is always present in the Powell villages. Honestly, I know every inch of Gold River, and I've driven over to a friend's house for a party and walked up to the wrong one several times. For some coming from near and far who have never seen anything like it, it takes a while to understand, but it all falls back on his one idea: the homes should blend in with nature and not stand out.

He was also a big believer in redwood trees; he had them planted seemingly by the thousand, and now they're everywhere and fully mature. The nature thing again.

That's where the similarity and the continuity end: at the front door. His interior designs were way ahead of their time, and they prove to be timeless: floor plans that are open, large rooms, especially the bedrooms, big, well-designed kitchens, and a wall of huge windows that bring your backyard oasis into your home.

Whether it was built in the 1980s or in the newer villages of the late 1990s, the floor plans lend themselves to absolutely gorgeous remodels and makeovers. Open a wall here, remodel a kitchen there, update the flooring and the cabinets, and wow. Combined with the wall of windows and the open floor plan, you have an entertainer's dream.

And the backyards deserve a mention of their own. Many are designed by the region's most talented and creative landscape architects, and honestly, some are just drop-dead, knock-your-socks-off, hope-I-get-invited-to-a-party-here stunning.

Another of his ideas, one you have to wrap your head around, is that all the models are numbered by series: the 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000, and, of course, the 10000 series. Here's the tricky part: depending on the village, a 9000 series home could be 1,800 square feet, or 2,200, 2,800, 3,200, 3,800, or even 4,600. It's the same exact design, with the walls moved outward.

You might see a 2200-square-foot 9000 and a 2800-square-foot 9000 on the same visit, and the client will tell you "this feels like the last one, but it seems different". They are different. Every village was built to its own size range: some of the early villages came smaller, and the 10000 series, which is a big one at 4,800+ square feet, was only available in a couple of the highest end, premier villages.

Powell built most of the villages here, I believe 17 or 18 of them. Bob Coker of Coker-Ewing, another prominent builder of the era, built 4; US Homes, a national subdivision builder, built 1; J&R, a regional builder, built 1; Greystone, an "opportunity" builder, built 1; and a small builder produced one tiny village of maybe 25 or so homes. Much later, they filled in a bare piece of land behind the town center, next to the club, with condos.

I mentioned the cult-like following of Powell homes earlier, and it's especially true in Gold River. I have clients who own a few homes there, and they've done very well with them, holding them as high-end, sought-after rentals while the equity gains pile up.

Watch how people actually move through this piece of town, because it runs like its own cycle: a lot of homeowners start in one of the smaller, less expensive, lighter-CC&R Coker or US Homes neighborhoods, then move up to a nicer, bigger Powell, then bigger still, a premier Powell neighborhood. As the kids start moving out, you've got it: they step back into a smaller Powell, and then, finally, into an easy-care, no-yard patio home, which Powell also built.

So for decades they never leave the Gold River hood, because they can't. And the other observation always makes me smile: I've seen people and clients move out to the latest hotspot, Serrano or Granite Bay, only to show up at my open house wanting to come home.

If this all sounds like bias, I am, for a good reason. I've sold a lot of homes in Gold River, written articles for the local magazine and its website, and lived there for over 25 years. I left to be with the love of my life, moving to another favorite neighborhood on the opposite side of the region, Morgan Creek. But I would move back to Gold River anytime, and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Single professionals, families, couples, and retirees all find quality living there, and they blend together in a friendly, active, outdoor, open-air lifestyle.