Alright, so this video is going to be all about all the changes that are happening here in the city of Temecula here in 2024. So I had a chance to hear from the city manager for the city of Temecula, and they laid out their plan for the city over the next 12 months, all the changes that they are expecting, the new infrastructure that they have come into town, some of the new businesses, the new highway projects, some new housing developments and all types of stuff. I thought it was really good information, so it's something that I wanted to pass on to you guys. We're going to do a series here. We're going to cover all the cities here locally, but for now we're going to focus on Temecula. So let's go ahead and get into it.

Hey guys. Hey again, my name is Justin Short. I'm a realtor and team leader for the short real estate team here in Temecula, California, in Meite, California. And this video is all about the city of Temecula and the changes that are coming here in 2024. So this is a series that I've done for the last couple of years. This is the third year now that we're doing this series, but we're going to do a video for each city. So we're going to cover Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, lake Elsinore, and Wildomar. But basically I get the opportunity to go to a city managers meeting here locally where we sit down, we're there for five or six hours, all the city managers from each meeting, each city get up and they give some information on their specific city, the new projects that they have going on, what they expect to break ground on over the next handful of months, and it really gives an idea for the direction that they're trying to push the city into.

So I think it's pretty cool someone that lives here locally. I mean, this is a lot of information that most people aren't going to have. So I think it's a good perspective to be frank. I mean, they're not the most fun meetings in the world. It's kind of like five or six hours we're sitting there, it's pretty dry and they're kind of rambling on some different stats and whatnot. But as a real estate agent, I think it's really good information and it's good information that I can pass on to my clients that I think helps our clients decide if this is the right area for them to move into or what neighborhood it's going to be the right fit. And just to know what's going on here locally. So hopefully you're going to feel like I'm doing you a solid, right? I went and I got all the information.

Hopefully pack it into a nice few minute, 10, 15, 20 minute video here, give you guys information and hopefully it's something that's helpful for you. So we're going to get into all the info, but the first thing, if you're liking local real estate videos like this, do me a favor, please. Hit like please subscribe. So we have new videos that we put out each and every week. So talking about market updates, neighborhood tours, best neighborhoods, worst neighborhoods, all types of stuff. So you can hit subscribe. And then if you guys any specific real estate questions, of course I would love to hear from you. So you can feel free, you can call, you can text, you can email. You're going to see my information at the end of the video or down below. I have people that reach out all the time and happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Or of course myself and my team would love to help you out with your real estate search as well. So please feel free to reach out, we'd love to hear from you, but we'll go and kind of start about talking about Temecula. So again, we went to the city managers meeting, and so the guy from Temecula gets up, kind of starts rattling off some stats, and so that's like the first thing that they had talked about and some of it it was a little bit surprising to me. So right now the overall population for the city of Temecula is up to 109,000. So that's overall population and that's gone up 4% over the last decade. So they're showing that the city is continuing to grow. They are at a point where they're getting pretty close to capacity. There's only so much more space that they can build, only so much more bare land, but they have continued to grow over the last decade.

One of the things that they were really proud about is that their city budget is in really, really good shape. So that is not the case for all the cities surrounding. They're in much better shape than the other surrounding cities. And the reason being is because they have so much more of a producing business. So they have so much more, so many more businesses that are producing revenue. So they're selling items and they're getting sales tax, which gives money to the city, which puts the city's books in better shape. So basically what they're saying is their books are in the green at the end of the year, even though they're continuing all this growth and they're putting all this infrastructure in, they are still saving more money than they are spending. So that was something that they're really proud about and they're also really proud that as opposed to most of the other cities around here that are really more bedroom communities, people live here, commute out, maybe they'll drive to Temecula for a lot of their business needs, et cetera.

But for the city of Temecula, a lot of their income, which is tax. So a lot of the city's income comes from sales tax as opposed to just property tax. So they said it was 44% of the income that they receive actually comes from sales tax as opposed to just pure property tax, which is most of the other surrounding cities. So I thought that was something that was good to know and really someone that lives here. I think that's kind of what you would expect. Most of the businesses here locally are going to be in Temecula. They have wine country, they have the casino, they have the old town Temecula area, they have the mall, they have most of the auto dealerships. So all that sales tax goes to the city, and those are some of the reasons why Ally gets so much more income from them.

So the next category that they talked about was all about public safety. So they were proud to say that they had hired a handful of new officers over the last year, which I think is going to be a really good thing. Really the city's goal is to have one police officer for every 1000 people that are part of their population. So there's 109,000 people that live here. The goal is to have 109 police officers that are working full-time for the city. That's not the case just yet. They're getting close, but they're not quite there. So they're planning to continue to hire new police officers this year. And then they were really happy that they actually won an award for being so efficient with their fire suppression capabilities. So they become, the city of Temecula is in the top 7% of structure fire suppression capabilities basically.

That's kind of a mouthful for me to say. Basically what it means is that the city is very efficient at keeping structures if there are any fires, to keeping those structures sound and making sure there are no major issues if there is a fire basically putting the fire out quickly and their cell. The reason that they're mentioning this is that that is supposed to help lower your homeowner's insurance premium if you live in a city that is rated so highly. So I haven't experienced, my homeowner's insurance has not calmed down over the last couple months. I can tell you that it's actually gone up a little bit, but they told us it's a good idea to mention that to our homeowner's insurance company and that should help our rates a little bit. So that's kind of something that's cool. That's good to know. It's the first time I had ever heard that and they did take one of their big point of emphasis right now is all about e-bike safety.

I guess they've been having some issues with all the E-bikes over the last couple of years, people driving reckless with them. So that's kind their big concern from my perspective. I mean, as a city, if your biggest concern is your e-bike awareness, I mean that's probably pretty good. It means you're probably not going to have a lot of other vandalism and theft and all the other nasty stuff that goes on around the world. So if they're taking on wars on the e-bikes, they're probably doing pretty good in other areas. So the next category they talked about was all the cool stuff that they have coming soon. I thought this was really probably the most helpful part of their presentation and all the stuff that they highlighted for me. I've lived here in the valley for a long time. I think I realized that the city is pretty close to capacity.

There's not that much bare land to be able to build. So I was surprised to see how much new construction that they do still have going on, although it's not like it's a ton of necessary track houses, but there's just infrastructure and construction that's happening, which is, I was surprised. I think it's a good thing for the city to continue to grow. So some of the stuff that they highlighted is the Summer's Bend community is still in progress. The overall goal now is to have up to 2000 homes. Right now I think there's only about 860 homes that have fully completed construction. So if you're not familiar with it, that is going to be one of the last one or if not the last big Tracted home master plan communities, so that I actually happen to live in that community. I think it's super nice, but it's not even quite halfway built out yet.

So they're continuing to build, that's a mix of single family homes, condos. They also have 55 plus homes that are there. There's some town homes. There's a really good mix of different types of properties, including some really high end luxury homes there as well. There's a big sports park. There's an HOA community, there's 10 miles of trails, et cetera. So that's still under construction. That's kind of the one new home community that's being built. There are other communities and other areas, but a lot of 'em are actually more multifamily. So apartments and rentals, which is something that it's kind of a newer thing for the city that has not usually been the case over the last 20 years. It's kind of a newer thing.

They divided it into section. So over in the ranch of California and Inez Road area, they have 460 apartments that are currently in progress. So there's construction happening now that's kind of over where the Oscars is and where the duck pond is. So there's construction that's happening, that's all multifamily stuff in the old town area. They have a bunch of construction that's happening. So they have one new development that hasn't quite started yet, but it's going to be up to 1500 units. That's going to be a mix of different units. So from condos to I think supposed to be some single family homes that's kind of in that old town area, which I thought was kind of cool. There's supposed to actually be a road that they're going to build in that's into the hillside there that's going to connect Temecula Parkway to Rancho California Road, which will make the driving and navigating there a lot easier too.

So kind of cool. Sounds like they're going to cut into the hill and build a little community there. I think it sounds like it's mostly going to be multifamily stuff, but they weren't really super, super clear there. But the road I thought will be a nice thing. Also more in the north part of the city around Harveston Lake, there's a lot of new construction that's still going on. So there's 500 senior housing units that they're putting in. There's 160 apartments. There is a new home community that is still being constructed. So they have detached homes and town homes. There's about 300 of 'em. Those are currently being built. They've been built for the last couple of years, but they're still under construction. And then there's an additional 237 just pure rental homes that they're building. So that's all over by the harvesting area. They also talked a lot about the Uptown Temecula area, which is kind of an interesting area.

So it's just north of Old Town, south of Winchester Road, kind of on the west side of the freeway, but they have 550 rental units that are under construction there. So that's going to be, again, more multifamily stuff. And what I thought was kind of cool was some of the hotels that they had talked about. So currently they say there's five hotels that are currently under construction. So a couple of 'em are in Old Town. One of the previous old town hotels that was slated is now switched to be multifamily residential. So that's 108 unit rental apartment complex. But there is a massive really, it's supposed to be a luxury hotel that's supposed to be coming into Old Town. I guess it's still under review, but it's supposed to have restaurants, supposed to have 50 rooms with a gym. There's a rooftop bar, rooftop pool, supposed to be really more higher end and additionally in one other nice hotel supposed to be coming to Old Town as well.

So I think those things are kind of cool. It just shows the growth that the city is having. I mean, there's so much more tourism coming now. I think that we can use those things when I have clients that fly in to maybe spend a weekend here and look at properties, et cetera. They don't really have a ton of great options to stay at. Usually more of a budget hotel type of thing. So if we had something that's a little bit nicer, a little bit fancier, I think it would make for a little bit nicer weekend for those people. And so they wrapped up the presentation really just talking more about the infrastructure that was being put in and redone. So the list of things that they talked about, it was pretty extensive. They actually have a lot of infrastructure stuff that's going on, but they just talked about general road maintenance and enhancements.

So they said it was about a dozen areas that are slated for construction in 2024, and they did say that they actually spend between nine to 10 million each year on road maintenance. So that was something that was a surprising stat for me. I wouldn't think that that's actually a common complaint for people that live here is a lot of potholes, et cetera. But to know that they're putting almost 10 million a year, I mean that seems significant. So it kind of made me feel a little bit better about what they're doing on the city level. They have a 17 mile loop that is under construction around the city. So the goal is for that to be basically a 17 mile biking trail where you can start at one point, you make the full tour of the full city, it's going to be 17 miles. That's going to be protected, easy for people to bike, plenty of extra wide bike lanes, et cetera.

So it's not quite complete, but as of this year, they should be, it looked like right about 90% completion there. So I think that's kind of a cool thing, especially if you're a big biker. They talked about the 15 freeway. There's construction currently, and there's some enhancements that they're putting in specifically where the 15 and two 15 interchanges, if you don't live here now at rush hour, that gets super jammed up. Everyone's trying to merge over onto one freeway or the other. So they've putting some new construction in that basically add a bridge and should make that interchange a lot smoother. So as someone that, since I live here, I'm looking forward to that, hopefully that'll be a lot better. It gets pretty jammed up, especially at rush hour. They have a new project that's going on at the Marguerite or Rec center, and so that's actually, it's a massive project.

So they put in a new multipurpose room, a new dance room, a fitness room. There's a new community pool there with that. The community pool has zero entry, so you can walk into the pool. It's huge. It's 45 feet by 75 feet and it has a diving board, so I think that's kind of cool. That was an old park that had been there for quite a while. That wasn't really the nicest in the world, but it's brand new. It's supposed to be redone really nicely, and that should be opened up sometime later this year, which is cool. Also, if you have kids, currently there is a skate park in the city that's at Ronald Reagan and that skate park is being redone, so it's being redesigned and it's being replaced. That's supposed to start this year. And when they're finished with that, that should give them, they're supposed to have a total of four pump tracks throughout the city, and they're even going to make some space for a bunch of pickleball courts.

So they're supposed to install 17 pickleball courts there at Ronald Reagan. So that's kind of cool. So Ronald Reagan Sports Park is a big park here in the city. They're continuing to redesign, or they say reimagine a lot of the city parks here locally. So they're supposed to redo four of them this year. Their goal is between three to four each year to redo and reimagine. Basically they redo 'em, new equipment, new themes, et cetera. So actually my kids have always really liked the parks here, so that's kind of cool. There's a new bridge that they're putting in off of Overland that'll connect it over to Diaz. So that'll be really nice, especially when it rains, because the other roads can get a little bit flooded out over in the industrial area. So that's a good thing. And then they have a lot of new businesses that are, I guess redoing their facades in Old Town.

So just trying to, the goal is to obviously make the area nicer, make it prettier, make it more modern, and just make it more of a place to be. They also introduced what they're calling the Sunset Markets. So they're now doing a market nights in Old Town in Temecula twice a month on Wednesdays. So it's the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month from five to nine. And it's just little city markets where people can sell their stuff that they put on Etsy and food and snacks, little fancy decoration stuffs and whatnot. Basically, they stole the idea from the city of Murrieta. So Murrieta has been doing market nights for the last couple years and it's worked so well that Temecula picked up the same tradition on a different night. So I think Murrieta is Thursday and Temecula is Wednesday. So kind of cool if you need something to do.

And they were proud that the Vail Ranch headquarters, which has been around for a long time now, but that is officially now designated as a historic site by the state. So that's kind of cool. So it feels, if you've ever been there, it's definitely feels kind of old timey and country, but now that it's officially a historic site. So I assume with that it's something that it's going to be there forever. So kind of cool. But that's actually a fun place and some fun restaurants and family friendly stuff to do there too, which is cool. So anyways, so that's all the info. That's kind of what they went over. I thought it was good info. Hopefully it's good information for you guys. Just good to know the city is continuing to grow. There are improvements that they're continuing to do. I think it's a good bet to live here and know that they have a good plan that will help the city continue to flourish. So if you guys have questions, feel free to reach out and hopefully talk to you soon. Thanks.