Rancho Robinhood, Chula Vista, CA

Buckaroo Lane, Rawhide Court and Wagon Wheel Way give away the theme. Rancho Robinhood is a small hillside enclave of custom homes on the north side of Chula Vista, set along Surrey Drive near Otay Lakes Road and carrying Bonita mailing addresses. Homes here are custom houses, many of them from the 1980s, on lots that run from about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, with side yards and two-car garages. Because the streets climb the hill, the best lots look west over the valley to the ocean, the downtown San Diego skyline and the Coronado Bridge, and some sit with open slope behind them rather than neighbors. There is no park inside the neighborhood, but the Sweetwater Valley below is full of open space. Rohr Park, down on the valley floor, has a 3.3-mile walking loop past old shade trees and a golf course, an equestrian ring and a scale-model steam train run by the Chula Vista Live Steamers once a month. Bonita Road, at the bottom of the hill, is the local main street, lined with taco shops, juice bars and cafes. Romesco, at 4346 Bonita Road, serves its Mexiterranean menu of ahi tuna tostadas, paella and short rib in a bistro dining room, with a separate tapas bar next door. Groceries are handled at the Vons on Bonita Road. Otay Lakes Road runs south to Rancho del Rey and Southwestern College, and Interstate 805 and State Route 54 are both close, so commutes toward downtown San Diego start close to home. Everything beyond the front door requires a car. With only a few hundred homes in Rancho Robinhood and no shops of its own, the neighborhood is purely residential, and the hill makes walking to Bonita Road more of a workout than an errand. What residents get in exchange is quiet: a few cul-de-sacs of custom homes above the Sweetwater Valley, where the evening view stretches all the way to the Coronado Bridge.