Residents of Saddle Ridge generally praise the qualities of their quiet neighborhood in south Reno, though some issues surround the community’s HOA management, alleged construction defects, and a loss of social connections since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Saddle Ridge community, a sub-division of Damonte Ranch, lies along the southeastern edge of Reno, nestled against the hills of the Virginia Range to the east. The gated community contains several hundred single-family homes and was developed primarily by the luxury home-builder Toll Brothers beginning in 2007 and ending eleven years later in 2018.
Today, autumn colors abound up and down its mostly quiet streets, Halloween decorations adorn homeowners’ front yards, and people can occasionally be seen playing pickleball near the community clubhouse or strolling down the neighborhood’s concrete sidewalks.
Steffani Reynolds, a renter who just moved into Saddle Ridge in August, paused while walking her two small dogs and shared her thoughts about the community, describing it as “dog friendly” and its overall atmosphere as “positive.”
“It just seems really . . . family friendly and safe,” said Reynolds.
Sarah Hand, who moved to the community in 2017 after getting married, likewise shared a favorable impression of the neighborhood.
After visiting the neighborhood’s small park with her young niece, Hand remarked, “Yeah, I think it’s a good neighborhood. I enjoy that we have, you know, like, some amenities. Like, we just went to the park. We use the pool a lot during the summer.”
Hand also mentioned, however, that Saddle Ridge’s homeowner’s association has had trouble fixing issues on a timely basis.
“Some of the slides have been broken for a while and things like that. That would probably be my biggest complaint,” said Hand.
Still, Hand named the community’s people as her favorite part of the neighborhood.
“We live over here on Show Jumper,” said Hand, “and we have some really great neighbors on both sides and across the street. So, we’ve gotten to know them really well.”
Tony Grady, though, has noticed changes to the community’s social environment since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Grady has been a homeowner in Saddle Ridge for about ten years since moving to Reno from Ohio prior to his retirement. Though he enjoys the neighborhood’s location, he feels that its residents have become more “individualized” than they were when he first came to live in Saddle Ridge.
“There was bunco that used to move around from house to house that my wife was actually part of; and then there were people who entertained; and it just seemed like, after COVID, that was all wiped out. . . . You know, there—there are still friendly people,” continued Grady, “but, when we first came here, there was nobody that was unfriendly. There are unfriendly people now, and that’s sad.”
Another issue affecting homeowners in Saddle Ridge is related to the much discussed construction quality of their homes. Law firm Shinnick & Ryan is currently gathering claimants from Saddle Ridge and other communities to challenge Toll Brothers for alleged construction defects in their homes.
Joseph Bleeker, a lawyer with the firm, said that they had been hired by “between ten and fifteen homes” from Saddle Ridge to pursue possible construction defect claims.
“This isn’t something where we think every home has a problem. We don’t think the builder’s a bad builder per se. This is just an avenue for homeowners to get some resolution where the builder has not agreed to resolve it on their own previously,” Bleeker said.
Though he has heard of issues with other homes in the community, Tony Grady says his home only had one significant issue—one that Toll Brothers addressed.
“The biggest thing that we had was we had a major crack going across our ceiling,” said Grady, “but when we brought that to the attention of Toll, they fixed it.”
Toll Brothers has been sent a request for comment regarding the claims, but we have not heard back. This article will be updated if we get a reply.