Dougherty Valley: Gale Ranch vs Windemere

Dougherty Valley is San Ramon's large master-planned area on the city's east side. Gale Ranch and Windemere are the two villages most buyers compare. Twin Creeks is a different, older San Ramon neighborhood west of this plan area.

What Dougherty Valley is

The City of San Ramon describes Dougherty Valley as a master-planned community of about 11,000 units, approved in 1994 by Contra Costa County. The city's Development Engineering page names the two developers as Shapell Industries and Windemere BLC. Contra Costa County processed the development applications. The city later accepted public improvements (roads, parks, trails, drainage, and community facilities) for maintenance.

The Dougherty Valley Specific Plan was adopted by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on August 2, 2005, and amended on February 11, 2014. Those are planning documents, not a price list. For current sales context, use the San Ramon market report.

Gale Ranch vs Windemere: schools (SRVUSD)

Both villages sit in San Ramon Valley Unified School District. Do not use reputation charts or third-party ratings to pick a street. Use the official SRVUSD School Site Locator and the district's published boundary maps. The district also states that growth can mean a student may not attend the resident school.

What official maps and school pages do show, without assigning your address for you:

• High school: Dougherty Valley High School is the comprehensive high school located in Dougherty Valley (SRVUSD school list).
• Middle school: Gale Ranch Middle School is located in Gale Ranch (6400 Main Branch Road, San Ramon 94582). Windemere Ranch Middle School is located in Windemere (11611 East Branch Parkway, San Ramon 94582). Those addresses are on the official SRVUSD middle school map. Your assigned middle school is still the locator result for the parcel, not the village name alone.
• Elementary: Coyote Creek Elementary states that it is located in the Dougherty Valley area of San Ramon. The official SRVUSD district map also places Hidden Hills, Quail Run, and Live Oak in the Dougherty Valley / 94582 area. Which of those (or another SRVUSD elementary) serves a house is address-specific.

Twin Creeks Elementary appears on the same official map near the Twin Creeks neighborhood, west of Dougherty Road, not inside the Dougherty Valley master-planned villages.

HOA: Gale Ranch vs Windemere

These are not "no HOA vs HOA" labels you can trust from a listing remark. Check the city map and the resale packet for the exact association.

• Gale Ranch: The Communities of Gale Ranch Owners' Association publishes a master HOA for seven neighborhoods (Avanti, Belvedere, Coronado, Gallery, Monarch, Solaire, and Terravista). The City of San Ramon HOA map also lists additional Gale Ranch sub-associations. Some addresses pay a master assessment and a neighborhood assessment.
• Windemere: The same city HOA map lists several Windemere associations (including Canadoro at Windemere, Fioli Windemere, Shelbourne at Windemere, and Wyngate at Windemere). Windemere is not published as one single master HOA on that map. Rules and dues follow the named association on title.

Ask for the current budget, CC&Rs, and any special assessment notice before you remove an HOA contingency. I do not quote dues here because they change and they are association-specific.

Mello-Roos and other special taxes

Many Dougherty Valley homes are in a Community Facilities District (CFD), commonly called Mello-Roos. CFDs fund public infrastructure or services and appear as special taxes on the Contra Costa County property tax bill. A parcel can be in more than one district. Amounts, escalators, and end dates are set in each district's Rate and Method of Apportionment.

There is no single Dougherty Valley tax figure that is safe to publish. Older San Ramon neighborhoods, including much of Twin Creeks, often have a different tax mix because they were not part of this 1990s master-planned build-out. Verify the current bill for the APN, plus the preliminary title report, before you treat two list prices as comparable.

Twin Creeks, briefly

Twin Creeks is already named on this site as part of San Ramon home turf, alongside Windemere, Gale Ranch, and Dougherty Valley. It is an older San Ramon neighborhood, not one of the two Dougherty Valley villages. Buyers who want established trees and a different tax or HOA profile often tour it in the same search. Compare it on facts for the address, not on a nickname.