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Land preparations are expected to start soon on the Beltramo Ranch development of 47 single-family, detached houses in Moorpark.
The 7.4-acre vacant lot at 11930 W. Los Angeles Ave. runs along the street's south side and between Tierra Rejada Road and Maureen Lane, according to records from the city of Moorpark.
It's being built by Valencia-based KB Home Greater Los Angeles Inc.
The houses will be one and two stories and will range from 1,300 to 2,300 square feet, Keltie Cole, president of KB Home's Los Angeles and Ventura Counties Division, wrote in an email Friday.
Grading work will begin this spring, said Craig LeMessurier, KB Home’s regional vice president of public relations and communications.
Moorpark is waiting for KB Home to complete information for a grading permit and work out details such as utilities, said Shanna Farley, city principal planner. She said Thursday she expects a permit will be issued soon after information is received.
LeMessurier said Friday that construction of several model homes is expected to be completed by spring 2025. He said it's too soon to know the prices.
The other houses will be built after buyers pick floor plans and purchase them, LeMessurier said. He added it would take six to seven months to build a house after it's purchased.
The homes will have three to five bedrooms and 2 ½ to three bathrooms, KB Home spokeswoman Cara Kane said Monday.
The development will rise on a busy street between two dramatically different neighborhoods. East of the Los Angeles Avenue site is the rural Maureen Lane area of big backyards, tall trees and spaces for horses and chickens. To the west is the denser, Heather Glen neighborhood of townhomes, condominiums and houses.
It’s impossible to design a single development that could blend with both neighborhoods, Mayor Chris Enegren said.
The City Council determined the solution was a development that would be denser than Maureen Lane but less dense than Heather Glen, Enegren said Thursday. He said it would serve as a transition between the two different areas.
In 2022, the City Council approved zoning and land-use plan changes that increased the site's density to seven residential units per acre, Farley said.
By contrast, the Maureen Lane area is zoned for 1.75 units per acre, the planner said. She added that the Heather Glen area is zoned for more than eight units per acre.
The council initially rejected two proposals, one for 102 residential units and another for 69 units, that were made by Costa Mesa-based Warmington Residential, the developer before KB Home.
Both were deemed too dense for that property, Enegren said. The mayor added that from the city's point of view, the site makes sense for housing because the surrounding area is residential.
Earlier this year, KB Home tore down buildings on the property. Among them were the Fountain Foursquare Church’s three structures and a single-family home.
Kane, the KB Home spokeswoman, said the developer bought all of the parcels from Warmington Residential, which purchased the land from three previous property owners, including the church.
The church initially sold its 3.5 acres to Warmington for $3.2 million in 2018, said the Rev. Reggie Mercado, senior pastor.
But before the protracted escrow closed, the transaction ended with KB Home taking ownership of the church property in December, Laura Reyes, programs supervisor of the Ventura County Clerk-Recorder's Office, confirmed Monday.
Other parcels at the site, including one with a house, also ended up with KB Home in December, county property records show.
All of the parcels are now owned by KB Home Greater Los Angeles, said Kim Payton of the Ventura County Assessor’s Office.
Mercado said Friday that his church was required to vacate the property on Feb. 15. Soon after that, the church was torn down by KB Home, which acquired demolition permits from the city.
The Fountain Foursquare Church, which has been at the property since its merger in 2008 with a previous church there, Harvest Foursquare Church, is holding Sunday services at the Moorpark Community Center until it can find a permanent home, Mercado said.
Dave Mason covers East County for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached atdave.mason@vcstar.com or 805-437-0232.
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