This Master-Planned Community Comes With a Catch—Don’t Be a Jerk

In August, Karryn and Elya Kurnosoff, both 33, and their two young children, moved into a brand-new house in their hometown of Hesperia, California, a city of 100,000 in San Bernardino County. Elya, a union carpenter and Karryn, a homemaker, wanted the amenities and structure of a master-planned community. “We were actually house hunting in developments in Utah, in March,” says Karryn. “But we found Silverwood and thought it offered something similar.”

They’re among the first residents in a $7 billion project expected to produce upward of 15,000 homes on a 9,000-plus acre site over the next two decades. Homes are now listed from the low $400,000s—comparable to the area’s median home prices, and less than half the state’s—to above $700,000. As marketed, Silverwood encourages an active lifestyle, nearly 400 acres of parks, 59 miles of off-street trails, and easy access to Silverwood Lake, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the surrounding mountains.

But there is a catch: Don’t be a jerk.

Silverwood advertises itself as a “community of kindness” with members obliged to sign a pledge when they purchase a home. “There will be homes, community centers, schools, parks, but most importantly, there will be kindness,” says project general manager John Ohanian, of DMB Development. “A culture of kindness is being designed into the fabric of the community to create an enclave where residents can overcome external chaos and thrive by working together.”

The pledge’s tenets read a little like the Ten Commandments, or what you might find in a kindergarten classroom—in other words, basic human decency: “Embrace listening to others, even when we disagree,” reads one line. “Seek to exclude words that hurt and divide,” states another. The idea of kindness—as currency, a marketable commodity—may raise some eyebrows, but is certainly subject to perspective. Ohanian describes his: “We see what’s going on in the world today…the acrimony and disconnect that maybe started with Covid, and there wasn’t much sense of community. And stuff going on politically—you know, ‘I don’t like you because you’re red, or because you’re blue.’ When you engage on a person-to-person level, you can get to a place of tolerance and acceptance.”

Karryn Kurnosoff agrees. “Especially with what’s been happening the last few days, people need to be reminded to be courteous and kind,” she said on September 12, two days after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. “Even if it may be sad that we seem to need it, to be reminded we can be different and still get along.”

Ohanian, who has been involved in the Silverwood project since the land was acquired in 2012, conjured the kindness theme a few years back. He says he was inspired by reading Brad Aronson’s 2020 book, HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act at a Time, and by his friend, former Anaheim mayor Tom Tait, who campaigned partly on a platform to advance “a city of kindness” initiative in 2010. In Ohanian’s view, that program, which took effect in 2016, reduced homelessness while increasing rehabilitative treatment, boosted police morale, and engaged the faith community. The idea for the program was a major part of the reason why the Dalai Lama visited the city in 2015, attracting international attention.

No, decency cannot be enforced at Silverwood and residents won’t be fined for foul moods. How do you really mandate a virtue, anyway? (Incidentally, when asked, Ohanian said the development is not affiliated with any religious organization.) “This is all aspirational,” Ohanian says. “If Mrs. Smith’s trash cans are on the street for a few days, I’m not going to call the HOA on her. I’ll put them away for her or even check to see if everything’s okay. If you do those things, it makes you feel better, sparks something in your own heart, and creates a better environment that makes us all healthier and safer.”

Build it and they will come

As the master-planned project unfolds, five national builders will be constructing seven different product types ranging from 1,550 to 3,500 square feet. Each product line will have three or four floor plans, some with multigenerational layouts or backyard casitas. The plans will have three to four elevations “…to create distinction in each neighborhood,” says Ohanian.

The Kurnosoffs purchased their 2,099 square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath home (plan four from the Lennar “Journey” series) for $456,000. “That was the base price and we bought early, back in April, so it’s definitely not that anymore,” says Karryn. The place is on a cul-de-sac with two other families on the street so far. Karryn says the sidewalks are nice and well-maintained, and she’s looking forward to being able to walk the kids to the park on the other side of their neighbor’s house when it is completed in late 2025.

In contrast, in the outside local market, Ohanian says “houses in the Mojave River Valley area may be priced similarly but are either on larger lots or in isolated communities, some of which don’t have sidewalks.”

At Silverwood, along with trailheads and pocket parks within a five-minute walk of every home, he says neighborhoods will be anchored by “village greens with an amphitheater or some stage functionality, so you can have concerts, movie nights, Christmas lighting, and spring festivals where neighbors can gather and connect.” There are also plans for about 700,000 square feet of retail and commercial space over the project’s lifespan, with a first grocery store–anchored shopping center anticipated in three years.