Windingwalk, Chula Vista, CA

Windingwalk sits right behind Otay Ranch Town Center in eastern Chula Vista, close enough to walk to the movies. The city adopted the plan for this village, Otay Ranch Village 11, in 2001, and most of its houses and townhomes went up in the middle of that decade. Homes split between two-story Mediterranean townhomes and larger detached houses, some topping 4,500 square feet. Association amenities include pools, a spa, a fitness room, playgrounds and a recreation center, and walking paths thread between the blocks. Streets carry outdoorsy names like Discovery Falls Drive, Exploration Falls Drive and Quiet Trail Drive. Windingwalk Park on Exploration Falls Drive is the shared yard, with a skate park, two tot lots and a pair of gazebos that can be reserved for parties. Salt Creek Community Park and the trails out toward Lower Otay Reservoir are a few minutes east by car, with boating and bass fishing on the reservoir's open days. Food leans toward the big shopping centers on Birch Road and Eastlake Parkway, and most meals here are quick ones picked up on the drive home. In-N-Out and a Starbucks sit on Eastlake Parkway at the neighborhood's edge, and across Birch Road the Town Center adds Novo Brazil's huge brewpub and a Tuesday farmers market from 4 to 8 p.m. Errands barely require a car. Vons at 1745 Eastlake Parkway handles groceries, the Town Center covers clothes, books and a movie theater, and the MTS Rapid 225 bus stops at the center. State Route 125 runs just west for longer drives. The catch is that nearly everything nearby is a chain. Independent restaurants are few on this side of the freeway, and the busy Birch Road frontage can feel more like a mall parking lot than a neighborhood street. Step back onto the paths that give Windingwalk its name, though, and the noise drops away quickly.