SANTA ROSA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 28, 2026--
As California’s leading builder of solar-powered, ecologically responsible homes with multiple successful neighborhoods throughout Northern California, City Ventures has announced the official Grand Opening of Brittain Oaks —the builder’s seventh community in Santa Rosa alone. The highly anticipated neighborhood, which features brand-new, two-story townhomes, will unveil its decorated model homes to the public this weekend.
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“Santa Rosa is widely regarded as one of the best places to live in Sonoma County,” said Natasha Zabaneh, President of City Ventures. “We’re especially proud to introduce yet another outstanding housing opportunity for buyers seeking to set roots in this highly desirable city.”
From parks to trails to local wineries, Brittain Oaks residents will appreciate having quick access to countless nearby amenities, including a lively, walkable downtown situated just minutes from home. Public schools offer impressive resources—including a special partnership with Sonoma State University—and a new library and recreation center are underway. Convenient access to major freeways makes destinations like Napa, the coast, and San Francisco easily accessible.
At Brittain Oaks, every innovative home is designed to make life easier, thanks to modern, eco-friendly features that save energy and lower utility costs. Buyers can expect all-electric construction, owned solar panels, Nest thermostats, Ring doorbells, keyless entry, energy-efficient appliances, and more. These aren’t extras or add-ons—they’re built-in features that are always included in every City Ventures home.
Spacious, versatile floor plans range from approximately 1,597 to 1,963 square feet, with three to four bedrooms and up to three baths. Expansive living rooms—some that extend to an outdoor deck—are ready for hosting and relaxing in style. Beautifully appointed kitchens, featuring energy-efficient appliances, designer-inspired quartz countertops, and soft-close cabinets and drawers, are built to impress. Spacious primary suites, complete with tasteful fixtures and abundant storage, offer a private retreat, while generously sized secondary bedrooms with en-suite baths provide plenty of room for growing families and even multi-gen living. Flexible lofts, ideal for a home office or workout area, are also available in select plans.
“There’s truly a floor plan for everyone at Brittain Oaks,” said Zabaneh. “Maybe you’re looking for a layout that includes a main-level bedroom, or a more traditional design with all the bedrooms upstairs, or an option that offers additional flex space. Whatever your needs, homebuyers will be pleasantly surprised at the many choices here.”
Known for its high-quality construction, energy-efficient features, and thoughtfully selected neighborhoods within the Santa Rosa area, City Ventures has quickly built its reputation as one of the area’s most sought-after builders. In addition to Brittain Oaks, City Ventures’ other actively selling neighborhoods in Santa Rosa include Round Barn and Fox Meadow, along with Grove Village, now in its final phase of homes. Among the builder’s sold-out communities are Fox Hollow, Stony Village, and Reserve.
The homes at Brittain Oaks are selling now, starting from $599,990. Hurry! Prices are anticipated to rise after grand opening! Interested buyers should act now and contact the Brittain Oaks Sales Team directly regarding this weekend’s Grand Opening event, via phone at (707) 787-7702 or email BrittainOaks@CityVentures.com. Be sure to join the interest list on the website now, here. The Sales Gallery at Brittain Oaks is open daily, from 10 am to 5 pm, and is located at 3111 Sebastopol Road in Santa Rosa.
About City Ventures
City Ventures, California’s leading homebuilder, focuses on “Building It Forward” by repositioning underutilized real estate into residential housing in supply-constrained coastal urban infill areas and high-demand suburban locations. To date, the builder has constructed 5,000 townhomes, condominiums, lofts, mixed-use, live-work, and single-family detached homes throughout Southern and Northern California. City Ventures was named 2023 Builder of the Year by national magazine Builder & Developer and celebrated 15 years of homebuilding in 2024. Based in San Francisco and Irvine, City Ventures currently owns and controls over 8,000 lots in California. For more information, please visit www.cityventures.com. You can also follow City Ventures on social media on Facebook ( @cityventures ), Instagram ( @city_ventures ) and YouTube ( @cityventures ).
Spacious, versatile floor plans range from approximately 1,597 to 1,963 square feet, with three to four bedrooms and up to three baths. Beautifully appointed kitchens, featuring energy-efficient appliances, designer-inspired quartz countertops, and soft-close cabinets and drawers, are built to impress.
At Brittain Oaks, every innovative home is designed to make life easier, thanks to modern, eco-friendly features that save energy and lower utility costs.
Brittain Oaks, an energy-efficient, two-story townhome community near downtown Santa Rosa, is hosting its grand opening Saturday, January 31, 2026
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Until quite recently, the prevailing image to outsiders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been male missionaries wearing white shirts and name tags, evoked by the hit Broadway show “The Book of Mormon.”
But another unofficial face of the male-led church has emerged in American pop culture: digitally savvy, female influencers, often seen sporting athleisure, a giant soda in hand — and varying degrees of adherence to church teachings.
These influencers have found an enthusiastic audience across the country, curious about their faith and families. Some explain the tenets of what's widely known as the Mormon church, but others bring attention to the rules they often break — drinking alcohol, having premarital sex and in one high-profile instance, a “soft-swinging” scandal that birthed the hugely popular Hulu reality series, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
ABC sought to capitalize on that interest by casting “Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul in “The Bachelorette,” but recently had to scuttle the already filmed season after a video of a domestic violence incident surfaced.
These viral moments and “Mormon Wives” project a version of the faith that appears more progressive and lenient than church leadership and other Latter-day Saint influencers might like. “The internet really challenged the church’s ability to maintain its own narratives about itself,” said Nancy Ross, an associate professor at Utah Tech University who studies Mormon feminism.
The church has worked to distance itself from “Mormon Wives,” issuing a statement ahead of the first season’s premiere in 2024 without naming the show specifically. It said that some media portrayals of Latter-day Saint women resort to “stereotypes or gross misrepresentations that are in poor taste and have real-life consequences for people of faith.”
Camille N. Johnson, the president of the church’s Relief Society organization for women, said in an emailed statement that it’s important to seek out trusted sources of information about the church and its members in light of recent media attention.
“Millions of Latter-day Saint women around the world strive to live faith-filled lives grounded in a love for God and all of His children,” she said.
It would be impossible for the “Mormon Wives” cast to fully represent millions of women in the church. But they are not the only Latter-day Saint influencers online — nor are they the only ones with large followings.
Many are women in their early twenties who are married with young children. They post about young motherhood and experiences like buying a house before they turn 25. Lauren Yarro, a Latter-day Saint content creator and podcast host, said she can see this being a foreign image to some.
“Our culture is fascinating to an outsider, and I can understand why it would pull people in,” she said. “That Mormon timeline is intriguing to the rest of the world. I think most people innately have a desire for a happy marriage and a happy family life and we tend to create those in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
The beliefs and practices of church members have often been the subject of intense interest and scrutiny because of how they differ from other religions. Some of these include the belief that church leadership can receive revelations from God, or the practice of wearing garments under clothing that have deep religious significance.
Latter-day Saint influencers are not a new phenomenon, but they have found staying power by driving pop culture discourse and documenting their lifestyles. Many of them use content creation as a way to be stay-at-home parents while also generating income for their families. Several prominent creators live in Utah, the home of the church’s administrative and cultural hub, but there is a broad spectrum in terms of how much they bring their faith into their content.
While “Mormon Wives” and its controversial star, Paul, have been the recent high-profile drivers of public interest, the cast talks about the church only sparingly. Rosemary Avance, an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University whose research includes religious identity and digital media, said “there’s so little reference” to the cast's faith once people are hooked on the show from its title. Many cast members have left the church or are no longer active in it.
“It was clearly a marketing strategy on behalf of the people putting these shows together. They think that’ll draw people in, and it does,” she said. “It’s not like you have these women sitting down talking about their secret temple practices that they’re not supposed to speak about, or challenging the authority of the church in some way. They’re just not talking about it.”
Avance sees parallels between now and about 15 years ago, when Republican Mitt Romney was running for president and “The Book of Mormon” debuted on Broadway. At the time, people wanted to know “what’s going on behind the scenes in Mormonism,” she said.
“People think they know a lot about it (Mormonism), and they’ve heard a lot about it because there’s prominent stories and prominent people who are well-known and those narratives are circulated, but it’s almost always second-, third-hand,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know any Mormons and may never meet a Mormon, or if they have, they don’t know it, and so it’s what you’ve heard and the preconceptions you think you have about Mormonism.”
Creators like Yarro, who speak about their faith openly online and closely follow the church's teachings, said “Mormon Wives” does not feel representative of their experiences in the church or their lives in Utah. The Latter-day Saint content creators who spoke with The Associated Press emphasized they don't place fault on the individual cast members, but rather the production of the show and the way it Hollywoodizes their faith. Representatives for Hulu did not respond to a request for comment.
“The only thing I don’t like about what they do is sometimes they will play on things, twist things, use what is sacred to us as members of the church, and they’ll put it out and it feels like mockery to us,” said Shayla Egan, another Latter-day Saint content creator.
Some of the more devout members use their online platforms to respond to and course-correct more salacious social media content or “Mormon Wives” storylines they believe don't align with their understanding of church teachings or experiences.
Mimi Bascom, a Latter-day Saint content creator who says the mission behind her social media presence is to “show that members of the church are real people,” often makes videos responding to “Mormon Wives” clips. She finds the show to be a “net positive for our church” since it gives everyday members the opportunity to “share what we actually believe and get that more out there into the world,” she said.
Bascom, for one, had always prepared to serve on a mission but no longer could after getting married. Making content about the church has felt like a way she's “able to still live that out,” she said.
“We want to be missionaries and spread the good word of the Gospel,” she continued, “and so this is just another way we can do it.”
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
FILE - The sun sets behind the Mormon Temple, the centerpiece of Temple Square, in Salt Lake City, April 27, 2006. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)
FILE - Jen Affleck, from left, Layla Taylor, Miranda McWhorter, and Jessi Draper Ngatikaura participate in Hulu's "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" photo call at The Rink at Rockefeller Plaza, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP, File)
