Mountain Center, CA – 1 Acre Lot with Pine Trees & Junipers, Mfd. Homes Allowed, Power is 1 Pole Away (265FT), 18 mi. to Palm Desert, Snow-Covered Mountain Views in Winter!

PROPERTY PHOTO ALBUM

LIVE MAP:

APPROXIMATE GPS CORNERS:
NW 33.59079, -116.46166
NE 33.59078, -116.46100
SE 33.59018, -116.46099
SW 33.59018, -116.46166

Sitting at a cool 4,000 feet elevation, there are plenty of pinyon pines and California junipers covering this 1 acre property zoned R-1-1 residential with power 265 feet away and no HOA and no CC&R restrictions. This zoning is intended for a one-home residence and accessory dwelling unit and allows for a manufactured or modular home on a permanent foundation, subject to Riverside County permits, building requirements, septic approval, fire requirements, and other standard development review. For water, you can drill a private well or hire a water hauling service.

With broad views toward the Santa Rosa Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, Coachella Valley, and distant desert ridges, this mountain getaway is 200’ x 230’ and offers a great opportunity for someone looking for plenty of space to place a manufactured home, build a custom home, mountain getaway, retirement home with a work shop in back, cabin-style retreat, or even an off-grid setup. Nearby homes in the Pinyon Pines and Alpine Village area demonstrate the appeal of this type of lifestyle, including properties using private septic systems, propane, solar, private wells, and water storage tanks supplied through water hauling services where municipal water is not available.

Electric service is provided in the broader Pinyon Pines area by Anza Electric Cooperative, although a buyer should independently verify the cost and feasibility of extending power directly to the parcel. For water, a buyer can investigate drilling a well or setting up a private water-storage tank with hauled water deliveries. A septic system would be required because public sewer service is not available in this rural area.

Along with pinyon pines and California junipers, the property also contains many lower woody plants including desert or mountain scrub oak, sagebrush-type shrubs, rabbitbrush, ephedra / Mormon tea, buckwheat and yucca. This is one of the more visually distinctive parts of the Highway 74 corridor. The area transitions between higher-elevation mountain woodland and lower Colorado/Sonoran desert conditions.

Enjoy a balance of mountain privacy and access to major destinations. Palm Desert, Palm Springs, restaurants, shopping, golf, and valley amenities are within a scenic drive, while Idyllwild offers cool pine forests, restaurants, art galleries, hiking, and a classic mountain-town atmosphere. The nearby Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument and Pinyon Trail area provide excellent hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, and outdoor recreation.

Property GPS coordinates: 33.590232, -116.461014. Contact us today to purchase this affordable Southern California mountain-desert homesite.

ADDRESS: 0 Buckthorn Dr, Mountain Center, CA 92561
GPS: 33.590232, -116.461014
SIZE:  1 Acre, 43,560 SF, nominal dimensions: 200′ x 230′
COUNTY: Riverside County, CA
PARCEL NUMBER (APN): 636-157-002
LEGAL DESCRIPTION:  1.00 ACRES IN POR PAR 149 RS 029/085
PROPERTY TAXES: $45 annually, 2026
HOA/ASSOCIATION DUES: NONE

POWER: No, power is 265 FT away and would need a “one pole extension”, or you can go off-grid with solar panels and battery back up or use a generator
WATER: No water utility in this area, have a Don Guthrie Services Center in Yucca, has a water station and they also deliver. Brown Drilling is a good well drilling company located in Kingman
SEWER OR SEPTIC: Septic installation required or alternative system. Don Guthrie Services Center in Yucca installs septic systems

ZONING: R-1-1 (One-Family Residential, 1-Acre Minimum)
HOUSING ALLOWED: Permitted Structure Types:
○ Single-family residential: Permitted as the primary structure.
○ Multi-family residential: Strictly prohibited (duplexes, triplexes, and apartments
cannot be built under single-family R-1-1 rules).
○ Manufactured, modular, or mobile homes: Permitted, provided they are
securely anchored to a permanent foundation, meet local architectural guidelines,
and comply with mountain district wind and snow load engineering tolerances.
○ Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) / Tiny homes: Permitted under California
state ADU regulations, provided the local property has sufficient verified septic
capacity and water
PLANNING / ZONING DEPT: Riverside County, CA Planning and Zoning department – (760) 863-8277 call for any building and zoning questions!
RV or 5TH WHEEL ALLOWED? RV’s are allowed full time with the placement of a permitted structure

ROAD ACCESS: Legal dirt road access one mile to CA-74 Pines to Palms Hwy
TYPE OF TERRAIN: Slight slope from the front to the back creating a naturally elevated building pad
ELEVATION: 3,953 FT
FLOOD PLAIN: Not in a flood zone

Here is a video of a nearby property we sold years ago that shows the landscape and snow on the mountains in winter:

CLOSING/DOC FEES: $0 if closing in-house.  Closing with a title company is a buyer expense
TITLE CONVEYANCE: Grant Deed; clean title, free of liens and encumbrances, no back taxes

Riverside County CA Off-grid solar + battery: yes, this is workable
Since this parcel has no existing utility connection, you’re not fighting the rule that trips up most “off-grid” projects in California. That rule — Title 24’s grid-interconnection requirement — only applies once a property is already tied to the grid; you can’t legally disconnect an existing service. Since this lot was never connected in the first place, that restriction doesn’t apply.
Riverside County’s own zoning ordinance (§17.296) confirms solar energy systems are permitted as an accessory use in all zones, and the county’s stated intent is to avoid any unreasonable restrictions on the ability of homeowners… to install solar energy systems. Riverside County Building & Safety (RCPD — the same office covering unincorporated Pinyon Pines) processes solar permits for parcels like yours, and their solar permit packages explicitly cover energy storage systems (batteries), requiring documentation on battery sizing and location and compliance with fire and electrical code.
Practical takeaway: you’ll pull a standard RCPD solar/electrical permit, sized for a stand-alone (non-grid-tied) system with battery bank, engineered to NEC standards, with no SCE interconnection paperwork needed since there’s no utility to interconnect to. One thing worth flagging from a more recent regional post: mountain communities like yours can have elevation-driven structural requirements (snow/wind load) that flatland templates don’t account for — make sure whoever draws your plans knows the site is a mountain parcel, not desert-floor Coachella Valley.
Water tank + hauling:
You don’t need to drill a well. A holding tank filled by truck delivery is a standard, permitted setup for this kind of rural parcel, subject to Riverside County Environmental Health sign-off on the storage/septic side

History and Geography
Pinyon Pines was founded by Art Nightingale in the 1930s, around the time that the Pines to Palms Highway was being constructed. A mechanic by trade, he invested in the Pinyon Flats area. He built accommodations for the workers of the highway, and also built the Sugarloaf Cafe, now since closed. Located in a small valley between the San Jacinto Mountains and Santa Rosa Mountains, north of State Route 74. It takes its name from the Pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) trees native to the area. Pinyon Pines sits at an elevation of approximately 4000 feet.

There are no liens on the property, no back taxes, no association dues, no maintenance fees of any kind and no time frame in which you have to build, and taxes are paid current.

Any questions of what you can or cannot build, can or cannot do on the property should be directed to the county Building & Planning and Zoning Department. Everything we know about the property is listed here. The information provided is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Please do your own due diligence.

For parcel lines where available, click on the bottom left box, “Show street map”

DISCLAIMER: While Lands of Exploration does extensive research on all our properties before selling them, there are always County-specific rules and regulations we will not be aware of.  The information provided on this page is to the best of our knowledge, correct.  All prospective buyers are encouraged to contact the county at the links and/or phone numbers provided in this listing to confirm that whatever plans the buyer has for the property in question are in fact legal, feasible and permitted.  Due diligence is the buyer’s responsibility and all sales are final.

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