Luxury Living Magazine Luxury Living Magazine

Monterra®…in the News

Above & Beyond the Ordinary

Monterra redefines the high life
By Becki Bryant
Luxury Living Magazine
Fall/Winter 2007

Monterra is one of those rare developments that almost immediately starts to feel like home. Perhaps it's the embrace of the ancient oaks that line and hover above the private drive, or the sight of deer and their young fawns feasting on tall native grasses, or the sense of a real community existing in such an exclusive, beautiful location.

"This is a special place," admits Roger Mills, who, along with his brother Basil; owns the 1,700-acre development located atop Carmel Valley's high hillsides above and beyond California's Monterey Bay. "We're just five minutes from downtown Monterey, and up here it looks like you're in an animal preserve with
wild turkeys, bob cats and deer. It's so unique."

But the making of Monterra was almost sabotaged by salt. The land couldn't be developed without its own self-sustaining water supply and, after drilling numerous wells and finding each one overflowing with briny, saline water, the original investors gave up. Fortunately, by the mid-1990s when the Mills brothers bought the land, reverse osmosis had made substantial technological progress-and it was much less expensive.

But don't expect the savings to be passed along to homebuyers. Because of its unrivaled location, Monterra-described by one resident as "California's Vail"-does not come cheap. Homesites range in size from 2 to 25 acres (most average 2.5 acres) and are priced at $1.8 million-and that's just for the dirt.

At Monterra's neighboring community, Tehama, which is owned by actor-director Clint Eastwood and boasts a private golf course where groundskeepers outnumber golfers, lots are almost twice as much. The two communities share an impressive fitness center complete with a large outdoor pool, men's and women's locker rooms, casual dining and a gym.

Other than sharing the fitness center and the same rolling terrain, which reaches up to 1,000 feet above sea level, the two communities are very different - Monterra
possesses a far more intimate aura. Perhaps that explains the unexpected stats.

"We anticipated a 50-50 split between primary and secondary homes," says Roger Mills, "but that hasn't been the case. Right now, about 75 percent of our homes are primary residences."

Approximately 83 of Monterra's 168 homesites are sold. There arc 28 completed homes, a dozen on the drawing board and another dozen under construction, including the 2008 Sunset Magazine Idea House, which will showcase design innovations for eco-friendly and seamless indoor-outdoor living.

Mills' magnificent home (it encompasses nearly 10,000 square feet and features 11 bathrooms) was the first to break ground in 2000. It often serves as the community gathering place and hosts special and regularly scheduled events such as cooking classes and family movie nights. Recently, renowned photographer and Carmel Valley native Douglas Steakley led residents and interested buyers around Monterra demonstrating landscape photography 101 skills. With a setting such as Monterra's, even a disposable camera was able to capture something beautiful.

Said one attendee: "It would be impossible to get a bad photograph here,"

No doubt many of them left with a new picture in mind of the perfect place to live.

Back to Press Box