By Ian Thompson
SUISUN CITY - Moving to the quiet streets of Peterson Ranch put another hour onto Pammi Singh's commute, but he doesn't mind.
"It is a quiet area," his wife Sophia Seboka said of their home. "We liked it for our daughter because it is a safer place to live. It is a little windy and there are a lot of little bugs."
"The bugs don't bother me," Singh said, calling Suisun City's newest neighborhood a nice place for families.
Peterson Ranch with its 578 homes, both built and still planned for, is the latest and last of Suisun City's major developments, and defines the city's northeast boundary.
Its construction helped ensure the recent widening and improvement of Walters Road as well as giving Suisun City a much-needed boost to its property tax base.
Sacramento-based K Hovnanian Forecast Homes started building homes in Peterson Ranch in October 2002 and home construction is still continuing.
So far, 384 houses have gone up in the Suisun City neighborhood with another 194 still planned or under construction, according to the Suisun City Planning Department.
The only wrinkle in getting some of the homes built is getting approval from the Air Force because of the houses' proximity to the nearby Travis Aero Club on Travis Air Force Base.
Even though the neighborhood is on the far side of Suisun City from City Hall, it has its own community center - which houses the Suisun City Police Department's crime prevention and code enforcement offices.
The center has office hours where residents can get information and use some of the police services. The building can be converted to an emergency dispatch center if needed.
"People are coming here more and more," said Joanne Ledford who heads up the department's crime prevention and neighborhood watch programs. "There are now people from Montebello and Lawler Ranch (neighborhoods) using us."
During a recent summer grass fire, some residents turned up at the community center asking for help.
Ledford considers the relationship with the neighborhood a mutual fit with nearby residents who tell Ledford when they are on vacation and would like an eye kept on their homes.
"We keep an eye on them and they keep an eye on us," Ledford said.
Despite having Travis AFB as a next-door neighbor, homeowners say they seldom hear the large C-5 Galaxy and KC-10 Extender aircraft when they take off or land.
"You are more likely to hear their loudspeaker playing reveille when the wind is blowing in the right direction," resident Thomas Dillon said.
Armando Antonio, who lives within sight of the base's large concrete storage bunkers, said he hardly noticed the base in his one-and-a-half years in Peterson Ranch.
"It is a very quiet and nice neighborhood," said Antonio, taking a break from painting his fence.
His wife convinced him to move from their house in Vallejo and she loves the place despite her own longer commute, according to Antonio.
Singh and Seboka have lived in Peterson Ranch for a year after hearing about the area from a friend.
His commute to his job in the Marin area is not bad since he leaves by 5:30 a.m., but the return is much more congested.
The traffic getting to Fairfield is not bad, but they would have liked to have schools nearer for their daughter.
While without any schools of its own, the students go to either Tolenas Elementary School, Grange Middle School or Armijo High School, all outside of Suisun City limits.
The area has four neighborhood watches and three neighborhood parks. To shop, residents can go down Highway 12 to the Sunset Shopping Center or into northeast Fairfield.
Due to its newness, most of the homes are owned by those who came looking for a move-up home, according to Vicky Hardy of Forecast Homes.
"Eighty percent of the people moved here from elsewhere in Suisun City," Hardy said. "They are mostly young families, a lot of them with children."
Lacey Gibbs and his wife moved to the area in 2003 after looking at other places in Vacaville and Fairfield.
Her commute is to San Francisco while his is just around the corner to Travis Air Force Base.
"I have been seeing the changes in Suisun City for the last few years," Gibbs said. "It seemed like a good place to move to and it has proved to be just that."
He describes his part of Peterson Ranch as "an awesome neighborhood that is not only ethnically diverse, but diverse age wise too."
Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.
Peterson Ranch
- Home construction started: 2002
- Completed: Still under construction
- Number of houses: 384 (578 at build out)
- Median sales price: $550,000
- Schools: Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District
- Nearest Shopping Center: Sunset Shopping Center
- Parks: Patriot Park
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