Creating Connection
The Seven Oaks West Ming Specific Plan outlines a 25-year plan for the future growth within the Seven Oaks Master Planned Community. A cornerstone to the plan is the miles of trails and paseos linking the residential villages with the community parks and retail centers as well as the office park. The Seven Oaks Master Planned Community offers pedestrians connectivity to shopping, entertainment and employment hubs which create a genuine live-work-play environment without the need to get in a car.
The multi-purpose trail was championed by, and later named after, Stephan J. DeBranch to provide connectivity to the businesses within the Seven Oaks Business Park and the Seven Oaks residential communities of Belcourt and Highgate. As the trail is developing, his dream is quickly becoming a reality. Cycling and walking enthusiasts are able to enjoy the outdoors as well as the convenience of numerous neighborhood and business access points to the multi-purpose trail.
The northern portion of the trail system connects through Castle & Cooke’s most recent development, Highgate Seven Oaks, linking the new residential community and the future Highgate elementary school. Ultimately, the trail will connect with the Kern River Bike Path, offering access along the Kern River. Castle & Cooke has continued embrace the connectivity of the trail system to benefit the current and future residents. “Castle & Cooke is working with City staff to introduce a linear park around a portion of Highgate at Seven Oaks that, if approved, would not only connect to the Kern River Trail but also provide a point of connection where the adjacent village to the south could pick up the linear park concept and incorporate it into their plan as well,” stated Scott Thayer, Senior Vice President at Castle & Cooke. “Castle & Cooke is a strong proponent of creating connectivity and gathering places within master planned communities and we think a linear park helps us accomplish that.”
Within the Belcourt Seven Oaks neighborhoods, Woodbridge Pacific Group (WPG) has adopted the same components of the memorial trail, offering residents connectivity within their neighborhood. “The trail is a great amenity of Seven Oaks that provides recreation and links to retail centers and the Seven Oaks Business Park. We wanted to take it a step further by giving our residents the ability to connect from within our neighborhoods so we extended the trail into our interior streets and promenade,” said Jeff Eittreim, Division Manager of WPG.
This fall the Seven Oaks neighborhood, along with the Bakersfield community, can enjoy the completed portions of the Stephan J. DeBranch Memorial Trail during the 3rd Annual Run to Remember – 10k, 5k and 1-mile – benefiting Hoffmann Hospice on Saturday, October 27th. Runners and walkers will start at the east end of the Hoffmann Hospice Home at the entrance of the Memorial Trail.
For those who have participated in this event in past years, we are sure you will be impressed with the continued growth of the Seven Oaks Master Plan. New this year is the completed Centric Urgent Care as well as the, soon to open, Asada Grill and Sequoia Sandwich Shop at The Shoppes at Seven Oaks Business Park.
Bolthouse Properties is pleased to support the Hoffmann Hospice in this event and hopes to see you again this year for breakfast and morning fun supporting Tom and Beth Hoffmann’s efforts to provide home hospice care surrounded by dignity. To learn more about the upcoming walk, please visit hoffmannhospice.org.
If you’d like to learn more about Steve DeBranch’s contributions to Bolthouse Properties and Seven Oaks, we encourage you to visit https://bolthouseproperties.com/about/team/.