Roberts' Ranch, Vacaville, CA

Roberts' Ranch is the biggest of the newer villages along Leisure Town Road in Vacaville, set northeast of the Fry Road intersection. Walk the streets and you can tell construction came in waves, because some blocks look settled and others are still being framed. The city describes roughly 785 detached homes on about 250 acres. Crown Communities, KB Home, Beazer Homes and Taylor Morrison have all built here, so rooflines, colors and floor plans change from village to village while staying within one design standard. That variety keeps a long street from reading as one repeated pattern. The first three villages are done, and the city listed several more under construction at last report. Planned neighborhood parks, public trails and a school site will arrive as building continues. Until then, residents head to Patwin Park, the closest established green space, with Arbor Oaks Park and its dog area almost as near. Magnolia Park takes a longer drive. Green space inside the community should grow as each village is finished. Dining inside the boundary is thin. Tamales Chepo's is about a five-minute walk and is the nearest named restaurant, and Dutch Bros Coffee is close to a mile off. On winter evenings the Showalter family's music-synced holiday light show on Hawk Drive gives the area a seasonal draw. Without a grocery store in walking distance, a weekly shop makes more sense than daily stops, and Leisure Town Road is the link to the rest of Vacaville. The catch is the work still underway. Equipment, dust and shifting views along the edges come with a neighborhood that is not finished. In a few years Roberts' Ranch will look different, with the trails and school in place and the yards grown in. For now it is new streets, young yards and a lot of open ground between the villages still waiting for their homes.