Neighborhood Spotlight: West Hills a paragon of family-friendly suburbia
Once part of the vast holdings of Miguel Leonis, a former ranch hand who gained control of part of the San Fernando Valley thanks to a questionable common-law marriage, the neighborhood of West Hills is now the epitome of San Fernando Valley suburban living.
A hundred years before the first suburban ranch homes began to creep up the sides of the Simi Hills, Leonis drifted into the west end of the Valley and was taken on at the rancho as a shepherd.
For the record:
10:12 p.m. May 16, 2019A previous version of this article said New Community Jewish High School is a private high school in West Hills. The school changed its name to De Toledo High School two years ago.
There the Basque immigrant and former smuggler met Maria Espiritu Chijulla, the daughter of the Chumash owner of the holdings, and eventually took her as his common-law wife.
The Chumash had been in the region for millennia, of course. El Escorpion rock is said to be a place of spiritual importance to them, and the nearby Cave of Munits is rumored to have been the home of a great shaman. That fact did not preclude the San Fernando Mission from granting Espiritu’s father more than 1,000 acres of land that rightfully belonged to his people. After his death, the land became Leonis’.
When Leonis himself died after being run over by a wagon in the Cahuenga Pass in 1889, Espiritu was shocked to discover that he had not listed her in his will as his wife, but as his servant, with no claim to his estate. While she fought for her rightful inheritance, real estate speculators began to eye the San Fernando Valley with increasing enthusiasm, and the rancho was sold piecemeal by Leonis’ relatives.
Although Espiritu was vindicated by the courts in 1905, she died within a year, and the remains of the rancho — along with 44,000 additional acres of the Valley — was purchased by the Los Angeles Suburban Home Co. in anticipation of the coming of the Owens River Aqueduct. The Rancho El Escorpion became the town of Owensmouth, which was eventually renamed Canoga Park.
The expectations of investors notwithstanding, the western edge of Canoga Park was slow to develop relative to the rest of the Valley. In the 1980s, the homeowners in the shadow of El Escorpion peak petitioned the city to be recognized as the separate community of West Hills.
Neighborhood highlights
Take a hike: The Simi Hills, El Escorpion Peak and the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve offer great hiking just minutes from busy Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
Parks and rec: If watching your feet for sunbathing rattlesnakes is not your thing, there are plenty of municipal parks, including Shadow Hills Park and the West Hills Rec Center.
Shop till you drop: The nearby Topanga Westfield has been joined by the Westfield Village open-air marketplace, offering what is arguably the Valley’s best shopping and dining destination.
Neighborhood challenges
Nightlife lovers need not apply: To be fair, you don’t move to West Hills for the club or fine-dining scene. It’s a better neighborhood for board games with the kids than dancing the night away.
Expert insight
Leslie Bashaar, a real estate agent and 20-year resident of West Hills, said the family-friendly, safe neighborhood is notable for its large number of homeowners.
“West Hills only has five apartment buildings,†she said. “There are over 17,000 single-family homes in all of West Hills, and right now the inventory is very low.â€
Not surprisingly, “it’s competitive everywhere right now in the San Fernando Valley,†she said. “That’s frustrating to buyers.â€
Bashaar recommends that buyers get pre-qualified right away so that they’re ready when a property hits the market.
Market snapshot
In March, based on nine sales, the median sales price for single-family homes in the 91307 ZIP Code was $618,000, according to CoreLogic. That was a 1.5% decrease in median sales price from the same month the previous year.
Report card
There are nine elementary schools in West Hills, including Capistrano Avenue Elementary, which score 861 in the Academic Performance Index in 2013, and Enadia Way Elementary, which scored 855. Chaminade College Preparatory and De Toledo High School are private high schools in the neighborhood.
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