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Monterra®…in the News

Trump Magazine

Picture Perfect

By Laurence Fohrman

Tehama and Monterra®, side-by-side sub-rural estate home sites that may just compel you to make your second house a primary residence.

I will be the first to admit that Clint Eastwood and I have very little in common. The one thing we do share is a mutual passion for California's central coast, which languidly caresses Route 1 from Santa Barbara to Big Sur through the Monterrey Peninsula.

Every chance I got while attending university in La La Land, I would drive up Pacific Coast Highway in my red ragtop and take in the majestic beauty of "America's Riviera," A typical trip up the PCH would almost always first lead me to
the Four Seasons Biltmore Santa Barbara, a Spanish Colonial trcasure actually located on Butterfly Beach in tony Montecito (a few miles south of S.B. proper), and conclude at either the rustically chic Highlands Inn or Bernardus Lodge-both in the town of Carmel. Along the way one passes through the central coast wine countries, the charming village of Cambria, Morro Bay and of world-famous Big Sur. Even after traveling the globe, this roadtrip never ceased to leave me breathless.

Situated at the top of some of the most sought-after and picturesque coastline in the world is an exceptionally exclusive gated joint residential community. Nestled into the Carmel Valley foothills, it focuses on integrating custom homes into the indigenous flora and fauna.

Some forty years ago Mr. Eastwood discovered this property atop one of Carmel Valley's highest hillsides-rising far above the coastal fog endemic to this part of California. The land, covered in hundred-year-old oaks and Monterey pines, was named by Mr. Eastwood Tehama, a Native American word meaning "abundance of land."

The development is split in two. On the coastal side is Tehama, owned by Mr. Eastwood. The other side, boasting valley and mountain views, is Monterra®, owned and developed by the California Lettuce King, Roger Mills.

Tehama has only 90 homesites scattered among 2,000 acres, priced between $1.5 and $4.25 million. Monterra® has 168 estate homesites, which range from two to 20 acres and are also priced from $1.5 million. Residents of both Tehama and Monterra® receive a social fitness membership to the Architectural Digest cover storicd Tehama Clubhouse and Fitness Center as part of the homesite purchase price (monthly dues are extra)-but not necessarily to the 18-hole course designed by Jay Moorish. One of the 300 coveted golf memberships here comes only at the personal invitation of Mr. Eastwood himself.

The homes already completed or underway seem to fall into three architectural styles-contemporary Spanish Colonials and Arts and Crafts homes (the later remi-niscent of Greene and Greene, were they still around today), as well as a Lloyd Wright-esque motif. Every home is subject to design review with an emphasis on con-tinuity between the land and the dwelling. (As such, the Lloyd Wright style seems most congruent with Tehama and Monterra's® values, as the core of Wright's philosophy of "organic architecture" was to reinterpret nature's principles and then build forms that arc more natural than nature itself.)

The unspoiled beauty of the land and the integration of homes into the land (decidedly not the other way around) make owning in Tehama and Monterra® unique. You might never wane to leave. I certainly didn't.

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