K&B Homes' 1986 to 1988 tract on the west Dublin hillside, with the Martin Canyon Creek trailhead at Silvergate and Bay Laurel, valley views from the upper streets, and three-bedroom to five-bedroom plans from 1,400 to 3,000 sq ft in one neighborhood.
Silvergate Highlands is the west-side tract that covers the most ground, in every sense. It runs from a 1,400-square-foot three-bedroom to a 3,000-square-foot five-bedroom, from a flat 7,000-square-foot lot to a half-acre on the canyon edge, and from the lower streets that feel like the rest of Silvergate to the upper ones that look across the whole valley. If you cannot find the right house in the smaller hill tracts, this is usually where you find it.
The name comes from the tract below. Silvergate was Dublin's first real subdivision, built from 1963 to 1968 along San Ramon Road when Dublin was still unincorporated Alameda County, and it is the reason the west side has a 1960s grid at the bottom of the hill. Everything above it came later and took the name. K&B Homes built the Highlands in 1986 to 1988, after Dividend Development's Rancho Diablo and the Gregory Group's Canyon Creek had already pushed up the slope. K&B built more homes than either, with more plans, on the largest piece of the hillside. When someone in Dublin says "the Highlands," this is the tract they mean.
This is the one feature no other Dublin tract has at its front door. The Martin Canyon Creek Trail starts near the corner of Silvergate Drive and Bay Laurel Street and follows the creek west into the hills: 2.9 miles out and back, about 550 feet of climb, moderate rather than easy. The first mile runs under big oaks and bay trees along the water, mostly shaded, which matters in a Dublin August. The upper section gets narrow and steep and opens to the canyons to the west and the valley behind you. Dogs on leash. Watch for poison oak. On the homes along the tract's western edge, this canyon is the back fence, and nothing can be built in it.
K&B sold three-, four- and five-bedroom plans here, single-story and two-story, from roughly 1,400 to 3,000 square feet. That is unusual. Most late-1980s tracts held a narrow band, but the Highlands was built to sell to everyone from the Silvergate owner moving up the hill to the buyer arriving from out of the area with a bigger budget. The result is that two homes on the same street can be a different order of house, so the neighborhood works at more than one size and budget. Buyers who started in one of the small plans have moved to one of the big ones without leaving.
Many of the larger plans have three-car garages, uncommon for 1987 and one of the details people ask about first. The layouts are the open kind for their era, family room off the kitchen, vaulted front rooms, and they have proven easy to open up further. A good share have been remodeled once already; a good share have not. Tour more than one before you decide what the tract is.
Lots run 7,000 to 10,000 square feet on most streets, with a handful on the edges reaching half an acre. The upper streets look east across the valley toward Mt. Diablo; the western edge backs to Martin Canyon and the open slopes below Dublin Hills Regional Park. The lower streets have neither, but they have the flattest lots and the shortest walk to Silvergate's shops and Dolan Park. Decide which of the three you are buying before you start looking, because they are priced differently and they rarely trade for each other.
The Highlands has an association, and its job is the greenbelt and common areas. It is not the kind that reviews paint colors or fences. Ask for the current documents, and know that it is a difference from Canyon Creek and Rancho Diablo next door, which have none. If "no HOA" is a hard rule for you, those two are the answer; if a maintained greenbelt with a small bill is fine, this one has more to choose from.
Homes here have typically been assigned to Dublin Elementary, Wells Middle School and Dublin High School. Dublin Unified has redrawn boundaries as the east side grew, so verify the assignment for the specific parcel with the district before you rely on it.
Silvergate Drive drops to San Ramon Road, and from there I-580 is about five minutes, with I-680 one interchange over. West Dublin/Pleasanton BART is the close station. Dolan Park is at the bottom of the tract, Shannon Community Park and its center are a couple of minutes further, and the shops at San Ramon Road and Dublin Boulevard are the daily run. For the rest, Dublin Hills Regional Park is up the trail behind you, 654 acres of ridge and grassland that has not been plowed since the 1800s, with the Calaveras Ridge Trail along the top.
Against Canyon Creek and Rancho Diablo, the Highlands gives up "no HOA" and gets more plans, more lots and the trailhead. Against Vista Green above it, it gives up the very top of the ridge and gets a bigger range of price and size. Against Hacienda Heights, it is the smaller house on the smaller lot, but with more of them to pick from. It is the tract for the buyer who knows they want the west hills and has not decided which version.
Owners here call them keeper houses, and the turnover backs that up. If you want a specific plan, a three-car garage, or a lot on the canyon, tell me, and I can watch for it by street. If you are selling, lead with the trail and the view; those are the two things buyers who come here are looking for.
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