Age-restricted communities have long offered smaller single-family homes or condominiums, with neighborhood amenities like clubhouses, pools, tennis (now pickleball) courts and sometimes golf courses. There are no families with children under these roofs, providing older people with a new sense of community. But in at least one modern community, the families can be nearby. In this experimental idea trend, pockets of 55-plus neighborhoods are being built within a larger, multigenerational development.
Seven years ago, Steven and Denise Rosen left their home of 30 years in Los Angeles to move closer to their children and grandchildren at the nation’s first such development, Rancho Mission Viejo near San Juan Capistrano, California. The Rosens’ 55-plus neighborhood is part of a 6,000-acre housing development that has 4,000 homes so far. When it’s completed in 10 to 15 years, it will encompass 14,000 homes and apartments, 40 percent of which will be dedicated to 55-plus residents. The development also includes a 23,000-acre combination nature reserve and a working ranch that has been in the same family since 1882.