Homes purchased at a premium next to the golf course now feature a view of a vacant and sometimes overgrown property. (Staff photo)
Ambient Communities has scheduled a new round of community meetings in March to share draft concepts for the former Cherry Hills Golf Course — the first time residents will hear directly from the developer in nearly a year.
The developer will hold six informational meetings at the Cherry Hills Clubhouse between March 17 and March 26. According to an email sent out by Ambient, draft renderings and an overall community plan will be presented, although the company emphasized that no formal development application has been submitted to the City of Menifee.
The Cherry Hills Golf Course in Sun City has been closed for nearly two years. The 300-acre property was sold in January 2024 to San Diego-based developer Ambient Communities, which initially said it had no plans to build homes on the site. Since then, preliminary housing concepts have been shared with residents at meetings, but the city has not received any official proposals.
“We are having ongoing discussions with the property owner, but no formal plans have been submitted,” said Phillip Southard, Communications Director for the City of Menifee.
In a recent email to residents, Ambient says it has spent the past year gathering community input and developing draft plans, stressing that nothing has been filed with the city and that the approval process would take years and require multiple public hearings. The company described the upcoming meetings as informational and said no decisions will be made.
Ambient has also pointed to ongoing maintenance efforts at the former golf course, including mowing, tree trimming and debris removal.
In February 2024, Ambient Communities held an informational and public input meeting at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Menifee. Sun City residents packed the ballroom and shouted words of opposition at representatives, including Ambient representative Wade Hall. Later that year, when Hall welcomed residents to smaller group meetings, he displayed designs that showed rows of homes being built on the golf course property – again admitting that a zoning change would be required and that a flood control channel running through the property would make such a project difficult.
“There have been a couple legal exchanges between your civic association and us,” Hall told residents in a December 2024 meeting reported on by Menifee 24/7 here. “Your attorney sent us a letter, saying the issue is subject to CC&Rs. Our attorney then wrote a letter, saying, ‘If you want to talk about legal issues, I need to be there.’ Somehow that got translated into a message that we don’t want to talk to you. That’s not true at all.
“It will take at least a year and a half to get anything approved. There’s opposition in any project like this.”
That’s the last Ambient has been heard from until the recent announcement of more public meetings. Ambient representatives did not respond to recent interview requests from Menifee 24/7.
The former Cherry Hills Golf Course stands quiet and vacant these days. (Staff photo)
“I was told and shown pictures at some of their meetings of what the homes would look like,” said Brian Holley, a longtime Sun City resident. “They want to build about 1,200 homes. This is the information I got from the people who went to these meetings, which they haven’t had any more of because the last meeting they had got very heated.”
Holley said he was speaking as a concerned resident, not on behalf of the Sun City Civic Association. He said one of the biggest obstacles to development is the neighborhood’s existing CC&Rs, or covenants, conditions and restrictions, which govern how property in the community can be used. Much of the Cherry Hills property is restricted to golf course use.
Changing those rules would require approval from roughly two-thirds of affected homeowners, a level of participation Holley said has rarely been achieved in past votes.
“Now, the city could rezone [the property], but it doesn’t mean anything until the CC&Rs are changed,” Holley said. “It’s golf course and golf course use only. They’re at a stalemate.”
Tony Reverditto, who lives along the golf course, said residents remain strongly opposed to housing development on the site.
“I do know that the residents remain vehemently against any development of housing,” Reverditto said. “The bottom line is that they should have done their homework before they purchased the property.”
Reverditto said recent rainfall has temporarily improved the appearance of the neglected course and that portions near his home were mowed recently.
Holley said he is aware of the new round of meetings and plans to attend at least one of them. But he doesn’t expect the plans to be any different this time around, and he predicts strong reaction from residents again.
“I expect the meetings to be very heated, especially after almost of year of them ghosting us,” Holley said. “From people I’ve heard from who said they are going, they said they’re going to ask when Ambient is going to finally have a little respect for the seniors and wait for a vote about changing the CC&Rs. Or are they going to try to ram it through the city, which they really can’t do?
“I’m not for or against building, but I don’t think building on the golf course is a good idea. A vote would have to be taken to change the CC&Rs. There’s nothing else the people can say or do … they can protest at City Hall, march up and down the street, but in the end, it’s the City Council that would have to vote to rezone the area.”
On its website, which can be found at this link, Ambient has announced the formation of two committees – a “golf” committee and an “amenities” committee – residents can sign up to join.
“They tried that before,” Holley said. “Only one or two people signed up. They got an email saying that because of low participation, they were pausing the idea or something like that.”
Mark Wade, another local resident, suggested at a Menifee Town Hall on Monday that the City consider trying to purchase from Ambient a small part of the golf course known as “The Island” to preserve as a park. It is a block-long lot bordered by city streets that used to serve as part of the course. And of course, many residents still dream that the property can one day be re-opened as a golf course.
For now, Cherry Hills remains closed, with no formal development applications filed and no clear timeline for what comes next. Residents have the opportunity to attend the March meetings, which will hopefully provide a clearer picture of the project’s direction. You can RSVP for one of the meetings at this link.
Menifee 24/7 Editor Doug Spoon contributed to this article.
“The Island” between McCall Boulevard and Cherry Hills Boulevard is green from recent rains but vacant. (File photo)
