Vacaville gives Vanden Meadows' last homes three more years

Stand on the east shoulder of Vanden Road at Helmsley Drive and look east. Graded dirt pads. A stack of concrete storm pipe. A construction container. Past all of it, a long row of new two-story stucco houses that did not exist ten years ago. The dirt in front is Unit 5 of the Villages at Vanden, and Vacaville just gave its builder until November 22, 2029, to finish it.

This is the last unfinished piece of Vanden Meadows, the master-planned neighborhood on Vacaville's southeast edge between Nut Tree Road and Leisure Town Road. It was scoped in 2011 at up to 939 homes. It will end at about 779 houses and no apartments, and the extension tells you roughly how many are left: about 57, according to city staff. For anyone shopping there, the neighborhood already scores well. Houseberry ranks Vanden Meadows third of 20 Vacaville neighborhoods at 3.5 out of 5, and its school score ties for the best in the city.

Three years, and nothing else

The amendment is narrow on purpose. The October 6 Planning Commission staff report says it "would neither expand the development nor alter its approved physical characteristics." Same 97 cluster and courtyard homes. Same frontage work on Vanden Road. Same fees.

So why bother? Because a development agreement that expires mid-construction mostly stops existing. Under Section 1.C of the 2013 contract, only a short list of obligations survives expiration: impact fees, the park obligation, agricultural mitigation, roadway work and a few others. Everything else, including annual compliance reviews and the improvement bonds, would have had to be sorted out one approval at a time.

Taylor Morrison asked for the extension in a September 17 letter and put its own finish date at November 2029. The company bought Unit 5 on April 12, 2024, and the city approved four house plans for it that August, from 1,586 to 2,096 square feet in Farmhouse, Mid-Century Modern and Modern Prairie styles.

It sells them as The Pointe, with a sales office on Oakham Drive. Prices on NewHomeSource start at $563,940 with a $121 monthly HOA as of this week.

One rule rides along unchanged. The 2023 first amendment, which added three years to the original 10-year term, also banned build-to-rent on this lot. Unit 5 stays for-sale housing.

Timing is tight but workable. The council's October 13 second reading means the ordinance takes effect 30 days later, around November 12. That is ten days before the old agreement would have lapsed.

How 939 homes became 779

The numbers in old Vanden Meadows documents disagree because the plan changed twice before anyone poured a foundation.

The 2011 notice that opened the environmental review described up to 939 single-family, clustered and multifamily homes on about 238 acres, a 28-acre school site, 7 acres of park and a 500-foot farm buffer, bounded by Leisure Town Road, Nut Tree Road and a future Foxboro Parkway extension. When the council certified that review on September 24, 2013, the approved plan covered 206 acres: 747 single-family homes, 192 apartments, a 6.15-acre park and a 28.41-acre school site.

Then in March 2014 the council removed the 192 apartments and put 32 single-family homes in their place. That is how 939 became 779, the figure the city rounds to 780. The plan lost 160 homes, and every one of them was a rental.

The plan was split among four development agreements, and three are done.

The Villages at Vanden carry 59 percent of the plan's homes, which is why the last agreement standing is this one. Meritage Homes holds the bulk of it after a 2021 permit for 194 lots, sold as Tramore Village at Vanden Meadows off Shefford Drive. Taylor Morrison has the 97 in Unit 5.

What is still dirt

By our math, about 57 unbuilt homes is roughly 7 percent of what Vanden Meadows was approved for. The houses are close to done. Two public pieces are further behind.

The park comes first. The 2013 plan promised a neighborhood park of about 6 acres. The city has named it Unity Meadows Park, 6.16 acres at Jackson Road and Baileyann Place, and its own page says the master plan process has only begun. Until then the nearest finished green space is Magnolia Park, six acres at 215 Cogburn Circle in neighboring Southtown.

The school site is the bigger unknown. The plan holds roughly 28 acres for Travis Unified School District, which serves this corner of Vacaville, and the district decides when anything gets built there. We found no announced construction schedule. Builder listings today send Vanden Meadows students to Cambridge Elementary or Center Elementary, Golden West Middle and Vanden High.

How the finished part scores

Here is where Houseberry's numbers help. Vanden Meadows posts a 4.4 out of 5 on safety, fifth of 20 in Vacaville on our safety ranking. Its school score of 3.3 ties Browns Valley for the top spot on our Vacaville schools ranking, 0.6 points above the city median of 2.7.

The weak spot is errands. Houseberry rates nearby merchants at 1.1 out of 5, and amenities overall land at 3.1, exactly the city median. Some yards are still bare. You will drive for groceries.

Price is the other story. Houseberry's ranking lists a typical price of $739,000 for Vanden Meadows, the highest of 20 priced Vacaville neighborhoods and $140,000 above the median of those 20. That figure trails the market by about a year. The new Unit 5 homes list from $563,940, which says more about their smaller cluster lots than about the neighborhood. Buyers at that price get the same neighborhood school and safety scores.

Our read

We think the three years is the right call. Letting the agreement lapse with 57 homes and the Vanden Road frontage work unfinished would have handed the city a pile of renegotiations and saved nobody anything. Staff mailed 125 notices to neighbors and described the item as free of contentious issues.

The decision that shaped Vanden Meadows happened in March 2014, when 192 apartments came out of the plan. Southeast Vacaville got a well-scored neighborhood of houses in the $560,000 to $770,000 range and no rentals to go with it. That trade is permanent now. Before you tour The Pointe or Tramore, see where Vanden Meadows lands against the rest of the city on Houseberry's Vacaville neighborhood ranking.

Sources

• CEQAnet, Notice of Determination, Second Amendment to the Villages at Vanden Development Agreement, received October 19, 2026
• Vacaville Planning Commission special meeting, October 6, 2026, item 7.a staff report and attachments
• Vacaville City Council, October 13, 2026, second reading staff report
• CEQAnet, Vanden Meadows Specific Plan notice of preparation, 2011
• CEQAnet, Villages at Vanden Unit 5 house plans, August 2024
• City of Vacaville, Unity Meadows Park