Borrego Village Campus: Up to 60 Affordable Homes Proposed on Donated Land

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Building a Stronger Borrego Springs

Wellsprings Community Foundation would put housing for seniors and workers, a fire station, and a clinic on 22 donated acres in the center of town.

Wellsprings Community Foundation is proposing Borrego Springs' first affordable rental housing: the Borrego Village Campus, on 22 donated acres southwest of Country Club Road at Church Lane, next to the county library and park, a short walk from The Mall and the post office.

The plan calls for up to 60 affordable one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments with accessible design, parking, and solar to hold down utility costs. Five acres have already gone to San Diego County for a new fire station, and a health clinic is planned for an adjacent parcel.

The foundation says more than 40 percent of Borrego Springs residents are 65 or older, with no affordable rentals available to a senior who wants to downsize and stay in town.

The land

The site was donated by the Wright family.

Bill Wright moved to Borrego Springs from Santa Barbara in 1980 with his wife, Jenny, and became one of the community’s most beloved and generous residents. Together, they purchased the Roadrunner Club RV park and later developed The Springs at Borrego, operating both until 2017. Their impact on Borrego Springs extended far beyond their businesses. They helped establish the Circle of Art on Christmas Circle, donated 26 acres to the community on land that now includes the Borrego Springs branch of the county library, and Bill designed, financed, and built the Springs Dog Park.

One of Bill and Jenny Wright’s lasting visions was to help meet the needs of Borrego Springs’ aging residents. In 2019, they commissioned a feasibility study for a full-service senior center surrounded by senior housing. The Borrego Village Campus grew out of that work and continues the Wright family’s long tradition of investing in the future of the community.

Costs. The Wright family’s donation of land is a significant part of what makes the project possible. In rural development, acquiring a site is often one of the first major expenses and one of the most difficult to finance because those costs arise before a project is far enough along to secure other funding. Donated land removes that early barrier and allows the project to move more quickly into pre-development.

Why building here is difficult

Borrego has cheap vacant land and still no affordable rental housing. Three reasons.

• Water. The valley runs entirely on a critically overdrafted aquifer. State law requires cutting water use roughly 75 percent by 2040, so any new development has to account for its water.

• Precedent. In 2018, county supervisors rejected upzoning 169 acres in south Borrego for a 169-home project, with the state's water order the deciding factor. Housing here has to clear that bar.

• Cost. Materials and trades come from outside the valley. At rents working households can afford, the numbers don't work for a private builder — hence a nonprofit development.

The cost of staying cool

Rent is only part of the problem. Residents and service providers report summer utility bills of $800+ a month or more, even in small homes. With daytime highs above 110 for months at a time, cooling isn't optional — for an older resident or a family with young children, a home that can't be cooled is a health emergency.

One result is that many people who work in Borrego Springs live in Salton City and other communities outside the valley, where costs are lower, and drive in to staff the restaurants, stores, and services the town runs on.

Solar and efficient design on the Village Campus are meant to keep an affordable rent from being undone by an unaffordable summer.

The documented need

A 2025 market study by Trailhead Strategies, cited in the foundation's materials, found a structural shortage of year-round rental housing in Borrego Springs, particularly for seniors and moderate-income workers.

The town's nonprofits show the scale of it. Fr. Michael Plekon of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, president of the Borrego Ministers Association, recently described five food banks a month serving four to five hundred households, and $18,000 in BMA food coupons distributed in a single month at $50 per household.

The Community Resource Center, at 587 Palm Canyon Drive in The Mall, is the hub. Its food bank serves roughly 350 families every Tuesday, county Health and Human Services staff meet residents there twice monthly, and its Let's Go Borrego program covers about 600 rides a year for medical and essential trips.

The Borrego Ministers Association meets weekly to review requests for emergency help with rent, utilities, and basic necessities, and runs its food coupon program with Center Market and Desert Pantry out of the Resource Center on Wednesdays.

Both describe the same pattern: housing and utility costs behind most of what comes through the door.

What remains

The project is in pre-development. Entitlements, engineering, water accounting, environmental review, and financing are all still ahead. Phase 1 is the near-term ambition; 60 homes is the goal, not a commitment. The clinic is planned but not funded. The fire station is a county project on its own timeline.

How to participate

The foundation is asking for letters of support from individuals and organizations, which it says directly affect its ability to secure funding; word of mouth; partnerships with local businesses and service groups; and direct contact from anyone with questions.

Wellsprings Community Foundation, PO Box 464, Borrego Springs, CA 92004. (206) 948-8268. borregono.3@gmail.com. wellspringscommunityfoundation.org.

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