Santaluz, translated as “sacred light,” is a community just east of Fairbanks Ranch and west of Black Mountain. Its footprint is about 3,800 acres, 2,000 of which are dedicated open space, setting it apart from most other communities in the county where the goal is to maximize the number of homes per acre. Once just a sea of grass, the single-family homes on large lots are deliberately sited around the Rees Jones-designed golf course, blending in with the surrounding natural landscape.
The website for Scottsdale, Arizona-based DMB Development Inc., the original developer for Santaluz, says “only 850 units were designated for its 3,800 acres; the resulting community sits as lightly as possible on the land.”
Kathy Lysaught and Gloria Shepard, global luxury real estate agents with
Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty, have the listing for a 7,500-square-foot estate at 7832 Sendero Angelica in Santaluz. The five bedroom, five-and-a-half bath home on a 0.98-acre lot is listed for sale in a range from $5.499 million to $5.899 million.
“The setting of this home, its 180-degree views, are really quite stunning,” Lysaught said. “It’s on the 11th fairway of the Rees Jones-designed golf course, so you get this beautiful green against the white sandy bunkers and across the way to the ocean, sunsets are quite stunning there.”
Lysaught said the home was built in 2014 in the classic Santa Barbara-style of the area. A year-and-a-half ago the owners contracted with local interior designer Rebecca Collopy who, together with her husband Jonathon Collopy, owns the Solana-Beach-based design firm, We R Home. The firm transformed the traditional Tuscan-inspired home into a comfortable, art-infused, California traditional/modern look, “so it feels so good and fresh.”
Lysaught said that Rebecca has a background in psychotherapy and spends a lot of time asking her clients “a million questions — ‘how do you live, how do you use this room’ — she completely redid the interior colors, all the lighting, all the furniture… I was just there for a Super Bowl party and it functions so well for large groups or even just your own more intimate family gathering — she really nailed it with this client.”
Also involved with the refresh on the home was Carlsbad-based general contractor Prentice Construction Inc. Lysaught said that she spoke to the president, Ed Prentice, and he and his partner knew that there had been a recent move by clients from the traditional Tuscan and California adobe ranch style to the option of a lighter palette. The market was shifting to “crisper lines, brighter tones and open floor plans.”
Indeed, wrought-iron gates open onto a spacious sunny exterior courtyard paved in a light, herringbone-patterned stone that leads to the double front door. From the moment the doors open, light is flooding into the home.
The eye is immediately drawn to golden shafts of a late afternoon sunlight bathing the formal living room. An inviting seating is arranged in front of a huge stone fireplace with a grand piano off to the side. An arched wall of windows frames the veranda, the lush landscaping and the ocean sunset beyond.
The open concept kitchen and family room has a wall of disappearing doors that open to the veranda with a similar view with sightlines out over the vanishing-edge pool, green grass, the 11th fairway below and the vistas beyond.
Santaluz is also blessed with an ideal climate — far enough inland to not have the coastal fog of May gray and June gloom, but not far enough east to have the often-blistering heat of the eastern part of the county.
“We’re seeing many buyers who want to move away from the coastal congestion and fog found in La Jolla and Del Mar,” Lysaught said. “As well as move-up buyers from Carmel Valley who appreciate the wide-open spaces, miles and miles of hiking and biking trails, yet, it’s still within close proximity to shopping and the beaches.”
Shepard added that it’s a family friendly, multigenerational home. One of the bedrooms downstairs is a casita with a microwave, refrigerator and bar.
“If you have your parents coming in or other adults, they can go in and out through the courtyard, so they don’t have to come into the house,” Shepard said. “It really does fit a modern family.”
Lysaught said that the upstairs bedroom is almost like a second master, “it’s got lovely balcony with amazing sunset views, then five steps above that is a tower bonus room that could be anything — media room, office, gym, writer’s retreat — anything.”
The view from this tower and its large patio is serene and peaceful. Its ambience is that of a home in a remote vineyard in a country somewhere along the Mediterranean Sea.
“Those views are never going to change, the grounds crew keeps the golf course to perfection, it’s really quite stunning,” Lysaught said.
