Oakmont Village

Oakmont Village is Northern California's flagship 55+ active adult community, sprawling across 1,255 acres in the eastern hills of Santa Rosa at the tip of Sonoma County's famed Valley of the Moon. Founded in 1964 and developed in phases through 2016, Oakmont has grown into a small town of roughly 3,200 homes and 4,800+ residents — more a fully realized wine country village than a traditional retirement subdivision. The community's defining feature is its setting. Oakmont sits tucked between Trione-Annadel State Park to the west and south, Hood Mountain Regional Park to the northeast, and the Mayacamas Mountains rising to the north, with rolling vineyards all around. Homes perch along sidewalk-lined streets on the valley floor or climb the southern hillsides, offering views of fairways, vineyards, and oak-covered ridgelines. The microclimate is classic Sonoma — warm, dry summers and mild winters that support year-round outdoor living. Housing is remarkably diverse for a single community. Roughly 80% are single-family homes and 15% attached duets, triplexes, and fourplexes, with the remaining 5% at the on-site Oakmont Gardens independent/assisted living facility. There are more than 40 distinct single-family floor plans — Cypress, Redwood, Cedar, Sycamore, Sequoia, El Verano, Poplar, and many others — ranging from around 940 to 2,749 square feet, in architectural styles that include midcentury modern, Cape Cod, and Craftsman. Homes were built over six decades by multiple developers including Berger, Gallaher, and Willowglen Homes. Buyers choose between Owner-Maintained lots (handle your own yard) and Association-Maintained homes organized into 36 sub-associations that handle exterior upkeep — which is why HOA dues range so widely from about $113 to $550 per month depending on what's covered. All homeowners also pay monthly OVA membership dues ($128.50 per person in 2025) that fund the amenity package. Golf anchors the recreational life. The Oakmont Golf Club operates two 18-hole courses — the longer West Course (par 72) and the shorter, more playable East Course (par 63) — giving residents 36 holes without leaving the neighborhood. Three recreation centers spread across the community serve as social hubs: the West Rec Center (meeting rooms, catering kitchen, table tennis, four tennis courts, six pickleball courts, three bocce courts, and a salt-water outdoor pool and spa), the East Rec Center (billiards, four more tennis courts, a pool and spa), and the Berger Center, a full performing-arts venue with a grand auditorium that hosts concerts, dances, weekend movies, lectures, and the legendary annual Rotary Crab Feed. A Central Activity Center rounds out the indoor facilities with fitness spaces, a resistance/lap pool, and craft rooms. Social life is unusually rich. Oakmont's club directory lists 100–150 active groups covering nearly every imaginable interest — chess, genealogy, digital photography, play reading, painting, lawn bowling, hiking (Oakmont Walkers), Cal alumni, Democratic and Republican clubs, Red Hat Society, Valley of the Moon Rotary, and dozens more. The volunteer culture is strong: the OVA Board and all committees are resident-run, and the Oakmont Visual Aids Workshop (founded 1971) produces tactile learning aids donated to schools for visually impaired children worldwide. Practical conveniences are built in. The Oakmont Village Market and Deli sits inside the community for groceries and prepared meals, a free resident shuttle makes loops to nearby shopping, and Sonoma County Transit stops along Highway 12 which cuts through the community. Star of the Valley Catholic Church, a medical office plaza, banks, and restaurants are all on-site or immediately adjacent. Oakmont Gardens, an LCS-operated independent/assisted living community, sits within the development, giving residents a path to age in place without leaving Oakmont. A note of realism: the surrounding hills are designated High to Very High wildfire risk by CAL FIRE, and the 2017 Nuns Fire burned portions of adjacent Trione-Annadel State Park. The community invests heavily in fuel management and evacuation planning, and Santa Rosa Fire Station 7 sits inside the community itself. For buyers coming from other regions, understanding and budgeting for California wildfire insurance is part of the picture. For retirees drawn to wine country — world-class vineyards, Michelin-level restaurants in nearby Kenwood, Glen Ellen, and Healdsburg, year-round farmers markets, easy access to the Pacific coast, Napa 30 miles east, and San Francisco about an hour south — Oakmont Village offers a very specific lifestyle: an established, intellectually engaged, physically active community where residents have been deepening the social fabric for 60 years.