Rossmoor is a gated community in Walnut Creek, California, with a population of about 9,200. It was one of the first "active adult" communities for residents 55 years or older in the San Francisco Bay Area.

History

In the 1930s, Scottish-American industrialist Stanley Dollar constructed an estate in Tice Creek Valley near Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County, where the Dollar family bred Hereford cattle and raised show horses. The estate expanded from 1436 acre to 2200 acre. In 1960, Dollar's son, R. Stanley Dollar Jr., sold the estate to Ross W. Cortese, owner of development company Rossmoor Corporation. Cortese had previously been involved in the development of a different community also called Rossmoor in Orange County. Cortese initially planned to develop the Walnut Creek Rossmoor as a Leisure World community, but abandoned this plan shortly after breaking ground. The "Leisure World" trademark is still in use by the Cortese family, but has not been applied to Rossmoor in Walnut Creek for years.

Community description

Rossmoor Walnut Creek is a senior adult community located in the 1800 acre Tice Valley area of Walnut Creek, California. The community is two miles (3 km) from downtown Walnut Creek, and 25 mi from downtown San Francisco. Development of the community began in 1963 and, today, there are approximately 6,700 residential units in three cooperatives, 12 condominium and one single-family home developments (referred to as Homeowner Associations or HOAs). Forty percent of the homes are garden-style duplexes to four-plexes, and the remaining are either mid-to-high-rise, and one area of 63 individual single-family homes. Homes vary in price from mid $200,000s for some cooperatives to over $1 million for the single-family homes and garden style condominiums. At least one resident must be 55 years of age or older to live in a home in Rossmoor. Amenities include two NCGA-rated golf courses (one nine-hole and one 18-hole), a large indoor pool and fitness complex, two outdoor pools, six tennis courts, lawn bowling greens, bocce courts, hiking trails and table tennis facilities.

Management

Rossmoor is managed by the Golden Rain Foundation, which is a nonprofit corporation. It has nine directors, each elected from separate districts in Rossmoor. Each director serves a three-year term, with no director serving for more than two terms.