With its first residents arriving this fall, Westbridge Seven Oaks is a community in the making, bringing new homes, an established church, a future school and park, and a long-planned trail connection into view.
On a map, the Stephan J. DeBranch Memorial Trail reads as a single line, more than three miles from Buena Vista Road to the Kern River Bike Path at the west edge of Ming Avenue. On the ground, it takes a different shape. It is the familiar route a child takes to a friend’s house, the loop a couple walks after dinner, the stretch a runner covers before the sun comes up. It’s a trail that connects neighborhoods, parks, and retail centers across Seven Oaks, and for the people who use it, it is the seam that ties the community together.
Venturing on the trail toward South Allen Road, walkers and cyclists currently cross at a three-way stop, waiting for traffic to yield before continuing safely across. Across the road, graders are shaping the ground that will become Westbridge Seven Oaks, the newest community in the master plan, and with it a pedestrian bridge that will carry the trail over South Allen Road and into the new neighborhood, eliminating the need to cross at street level altogether.
This fall, Westbridge turns from plans into addresses. The first residents arrive at Park Center Seven Oaks in late October, with new homes, a longtime Bakersfield church, and a future school and park to follow. Anyone who remembers when Belcourt was the new one on the block will recognize how pivotal this moment is.
The Bridge That Ties It All Together
The bridge will connect established neighborhoods to the phases now taking shape, completing a continuous path of more than three miles across the Seven Oaks master plan.
“This unique amenity is a pedestrian bridge that will connect one entire village to the next,” says Brad DeBranch, Vice President, Planning & Land Resources at Bolthouse Properties. Construction is expected to begin in late 2027, and the bridge is anticipated to open in 2028.
The West Ming Specific Plan, approved in the early 2000s, laid out this ground while most of Seven Oaks was still open land, and it planned for people as carefully as for cars. “One of the biggest goals for our development is to ensure that the neighborhoods, parks, rec centers, and shopping centers are designed to foster and encourage a walkable environment,” DeBranch says. A trail that connects homes to shops and schools means fewer errands that require a key in the ignition. Intention set down that early is now taking shape as a bridge, one more reminder that careful planning serves everyone who uses the space and the community as a whole.
Park Center Seven Oaks, Apartment Community by Fuller Apartment Homes
Every trail needs a destination, and for some, that will be Park Center Seven Oaks. The community of over 500 apartment homes from Fuller Apartment Homes welcomes Westbridge’s first residents when phase one move-ins begin in late October.
Owner Andrew Fuller carefully considered other locations before setting his sights on the west side of Bakersfield. “Seven Oaks provides the best living experience for its residents, and that’s consistent with what we aim for in all of our communities,” he says. From Park Center, Sonder and Vecchio’s sit within walking distance, Stockdale High is close, and the trail passes just outside the community.
Fuller designed Park Center for people who want to live in Seven Oaks with the flexibility of renting: young professionals, workers relocating to Bakersfield, and empty nesters ready for a simpler arrangement. Inside the homes are wide-plank floors, quartz counters, and bronze fixtures. Shared spaces carry tongue-and-groove paneling, white oak beams, and vaulted ceilings, and tall palms and olive trees frame the pool.
The company builds properties to own and manage itself, which changes what gets planted and how it gets maintained. “We’re not building for a quick sale,” Fuller says. “Bolthouse and Fuller Apartment Homes both think in decades.” That alignment shows up in landscaping designed to hold its standard in year ten, amenities kept to the same level as on day one, and a neighborhood that keeps its character over time. When you plan to own something for a very long time, the quality of the build, the intention behind it, and how people feel in the space all matter.
After years of grading, framing, and finish work, he is waiting on one thing. “Buildings are just buildings until residents move in and bring the community to life,” he says. The first porch lights coming on will be a welcome sight for everyone involved.
Newbury and Windsor, Single-Family Homes by John Balfanz Homes
Two gated collections will be the first single-family homes in Westbridge, coming from Bakersfield’s own John Balfanz Homes. The first, called Newbury, sits on 6,000-square-foot home sites, while the second, Windsor, sits on 9,000-square-foot sites, with eight new floor plans and elevations developed specifically for the Westbridge community. The variety was a deliberate choice from the start, ensuring accessibility for different budgets and stages of life. While Newbury offers more compact opportunities, Windsor leaves room for a larger semi-custom home.
“Being the first builder to introduce single-family homes in Westbridge really gives us the opportunity to set the tone for the entire community,” CEO Greg Balfanz says. “Westbridge will have so much to offer, it is pretty cool to be the first glimpse of what else is to come.”
He calls Newbury and Windsor “the most elevated semi-custom homes” his company has built, and says Seven Oaks was the natural setting for that work, given the community’s reputation for well-built homes and careful planning. He also points to Bolthouse Properties’ standing in Bakersfield and to the companies’ shared commitment to building communities that continue adding value to the city for years to come.
Construction on the first homes is expected to begin in late 2026 or early 2027, with the first closings anticipated by mid-2027. Several hundred additional lots are planned over the next five to ten years, along with a two-acre private clubhouse and recreation facility inspired by the one at Belcourt.
Balfanz has a particular hope for the families who arrive first. “They have the opportunity to be a part of something brand new and will help shape it from the very beginning.”
A New Home for a Longtime Congregation, Lighthouse Bible Church
One of Westbridge’s new neighbors is actually forty years old. Currently known as Laurelglen Bible Church, the congregation is planning a nine-acre campus in Westbridge, and when it settles into its new home, it will take a new name: Lighthouse Bible Church.
The idea for the move west began with a great problem to have. “Around 2020, God began to grow our church in a way that raised a good problem: we need more space,” says Pastor Eric Burns. The new campus will give the congregation room for every age group and room to gather together, supporting the church’s ministry for the next forty to fifty years.
The name surfaced at an elder meeting, where one elder kept returning to the image of a lighthouse. “We’re not a church by the beach,” Burns recalls thinking, but the image held anyway. A lighthouse guides people to safety and brings light where there is darkness. A house is where a family is loved, equipped, and sent back out. And by chance or divine inspiration, the new name keeps the LBC initials the congregation has carried for four decades and points to where it is going.
Burns hopes the church becomes a spiritual home for longtime Seven Oaks residents and for families arriving in Westbridge alike. That welcome, he says, extends to every neighbor the church meets.
A place to learn, a place to play
Alongside these homes and places to gather, spots are already reserved for a new school and community park. Both are a ways away, but the careful planning has been underway from the start.
Panama-Buena Vista Unified School District is planning a 24-acre campus serving transitional kindergarten through eighth grade. Bolthouse Properties spent several years working with the district to place the site where it best serves the homes around it. Design and planning will continue for a couple more years, and with an estimated two years of construction, the campus could welcome teachers and families around 2032.
A six-acre neighborhood park is in the design phase now, intended to be maintained by Westbridge’s new homeowners association. Expected amenities include open turf, age-specific playgrounds, and sports courts, though the final design is still taking shape. The current schedule anticipates construction beginning within two to three years and the park opening around 2030, with timing tied to the development’s progress.
Building a community like this requires forethought years before any of it becomes real. What keeps plans made this far in advance moving forward is a commitment to building with community in mind, and that commitment will carry into every decision as homes take shape and plans become reality.
A Community in the Making
While Westbridge is residential first, it joins a bustling community already making its mark: offices and businesses at Seven Oaks Business Park, shops and restaurants at Belcourt Village and Grand Island Village, and schools, churches, parks, and trails threaded among them. The intentionality of this plan keeps those important milestone markers within reach of one another, so a workday, a meal out, and an evening walk can happen inside the same few square miles, never too far from home.
DeBranch calls Westbridge “the next chapter of what Bolthouse and our builders have successfully established over the past decade.” And the proof will be one you can walk. Soon, the trail residents already know will carry them over South Allen Road and into Westbridge, past the porch lights at Park Center, the new homes of Newbury and Windsor, the Lighthouse Bible Church campus, and the acres reserved for a future school and park.
Some connections are decades in the making, and the neighborhood this bridge was always meant to reach is finally taking shape.
ExperienceSevenOaks.com | BolthouseProperties.com
