North Hills, California
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North Hills, known previously as Sepulveda, is a neighborhood in the
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...
region of
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. North Hills was originally part of an agricultural community known as Mission Acres. After World War II, the newly developed suburban community was renamed Sepulveda, after the prominent
Sepúlveda family of California The Sepúlveda family is a prominent Californios, Californio family of Southern California. Members of the family held extensive ranchos of California, rancho grants and numerous important positions, including Alcalde of Los Angeles, Alcalde de Los ...
. In 1991, it was renamed North Hills.


Geography


Location

The neighborhood of North Hills is located in the central
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...
, a region of the city of Los Angeles. It is intersected by the
405 Freeway Interstate 405 (I-405, locally referred to as the 405) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I-405 is a bypass auxiliary ...
and lies between Bull Creek and the
Pacoima Wash Pacoima Wash, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 is a major tributary of the Tujunga Wash, itself a tributary of the Los Angeles River, in the San Fer ...
. By road, it is 21 miles northwest of
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
; In relation to the cities surrounding Los Angeles, the neighborhood is about 17 miles north of
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, 16 miles east of
Simi Valley Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in southeastern Ventura County, California, United States. It is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. Simi Valley borders Th ...
, 14 miles northeast of
Calabasas Calabasas may refer to: * Calabasas, Arizona, former populated place in what is now Rio Rico, Arizona * Calabasas, California, city in Los Angeles County, California See also * Calabaza Calabaza is the generic name in the Spanish langua ...
, 13 miles northwest of
Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...
, 12 miles south of
Santa Clarita Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-most populous city in Los Angeles County, the 17th-most populo ...
, and 4 miles southwest of
San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...
. Surrounding neighborhoods are Northridge to the west,
Panorama City Panorama City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley. It has a generally young age range as well as the highest population density in the Valley. More than half of the neighborhood's population was b ...
to the east,
Van Nuys Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1 ...
to the south, and Granada Hills and Mission Hills to the north. Overlapping
Area codes 747 and 818 Area codes 818 and 747 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Area code 818 was created in a split from area code 213 on Jan ...
serve the area. The North Hills ZIP code is 91343.


Neighborhood boundaries and area

While neighborhood boundaries in the Los Angeles area are generally informal, the official boundaries used by the North Hills East and West neighborhood council districts would make the neighborhood a area between Bull Creek and the
Pacoima Wash Pacoima Wash, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 is a major tributary of the Tujunga Wash, itself a tributary of the Los Angeles River, in the San Fer ...
on the west and east respectively. The southern boundary is
Roscoe Boulevard Roscoe Boulevard is a major east–west arterial road that runs for across the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Name There are two theories as to how Roscoe Boulevard got its name. The first is that it is named after a Southern ...
, starting on Bull Creek and ending at the Pacoima Wash; North Hills East includes a
panhandle A salient, panhandle, or bootheel is an elongated protrusion of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state. While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on three sides. Ins ...
of land south of Roscoe Boulevard to the
Coast Line Coast Line may refer to: * Coast Line (California), a railroad line * Coast Line (Denmark), a railroad line * Coast Line (Sri Lanka), a railroad line See also * Coastline A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea ...
railroad between the
405 Freeway Interstate 405 (I-405, locally referred to as the 405) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I-405 is a bypass auxiliary ...
and
Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda ...
. The northern boundary is Lassen Street, west from the Pacoima Wash to Woodley Avenue. Since 2012, North Hills is bounded by the community of Woodley Hill in Northridge which occupies a square area at the northwest area of the neighborhood bounded by Woodley Avenue in the west and Plummer Street in the south. The North Hills East and West neighborhood councils are separated by the 405 Freeway; the West district has an area of and the East has an area of . Other sources, notably the
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'
Mapping L.A. Mapping L.A. was a 2009 project of the ''Los Angeles Times''. It identified 158 cities and Unincorporated area, unincorporated areas within Los Angeles County, California. It also drew boundary lines for 114 neighborhoods within the Los Angeles, C ...
project, extend the neighborhood's boundaries to
Balboa Boulevard Balboa Boulevard is a major north–south street in the city of Los Angeles, and it cuts through many communities and is one of the main thoroughfares in the San Fernando Valley. Name Balboa Boulevard was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, ...
and Bull Creek ("the wash") on the west, and Lassen and Devonshire Street on the north, mostly to include the North Hills Shopping Center which is also claimed by Granada Hills.


History

The San Fernando Valley had been inhabited by
Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands of California, Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the peop ...
people, as well as
Tataviam The Tataviam (Kitanemuk: ''people on the south slope'') are a Native American group in Southern California. The ancestral land of the Tataviam people includes northwest present-day Los Angeles County and southern Ventura County, primarily in ...
and
Chumash Chumash may refer to: *Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism *Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California *Chumashan languages, Indigenous languages of California See also

* Pentateuch (dis ...
people. Their settlements, later called ''
ranchería The Spanish word ranchería, or rancherío, refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, native villages or bunkhouses. Anglo-Americans adopted the term with both these meaning ...
s'' by the Spanish, were mostly located in the southern valley which was better irrigated in the dry season and provided shelter from winter floods; in the north valley were the villages of Paséknga, in modern-day
San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...
, and Pakoinga, of
Tataviam The Tataviam (Kitanemuk: ''people on the south slope'') are a Native American group in Southern California. The ancestral land of the Tataviam people includes northwest present-day Los Angeles County and southern Ventura County, primarily in ...
etymology and located in modern
Pacoima Pacoima (Tataviam language: ''Pakoinga'', meaning "entrance") is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley region of LA. Geography Location Pacoima is bordered by the Los Angele ...
. The area of North Hills is between the northern and southern settlements in a relatively flat area of the valley which was subject to winter floods from the
Pacoima Wash Pacoima Wash, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 is a major tributary of the Tujunga Wash, itself a tributary of the Los Angeles River, in the San Fer ...
.


Colonization and mission era

Europeans first arrived at the valley during the Spanish
Portolá expedition thumbnail, 250px, Point of San Francisco Bay Discovery The Portolá expedition was a Spanish voyage of exploration in 1769–1770 that was the first recorded European exploration of the interior of the present-day California. It was led by Gas ...
in August 5, 1769, and named it ''Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos''. After having friendly encounters with the native people and camping in the southern valley, they crossed through the central valley, where North Hills is located, on the 7th and set up camp at the northern foothills before proceeding on their expedition. The colonization of the upper Californias began with the Portolá expedition and advanced in the following years. The San Gabriel Mission was founded in 1771, and the
Pueblo de Los Ángeles El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, shortened to the Pueblo de los Ángeles, was the Spanish colonial pueblos and villas in North America, Spanish civilian ''pueblo'' settled in 1781, which became the ...
was settled in 1781. With the pueblo's founding and by royal edict, all the waters of the Porciúncula River were reserved for use by the new pueblo, including valley lands, and royal concessions for grazing land were issued. Francisco Reyes,
alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...
of Los Ángeles from 1793 to 1795, established a grazing operation of
Rancho Los Encinos Rancho Los Encinos (also Rancho El Encino and Rancho Encino) was a Spanish grazing concession, and later Mexican land granted cattle and sheep rancho and travelers way-station on the El Camino Real in the San Fernando Valley, in present-day E ...
near Paséknga which included the agricultural settlement of Achooykomenga, worked by Chumash, Tongva, and Tataviam laborers. The rancho was acquired by Franciscan missionaries after being identified as a suitable site for a mission, and on September 8, 1797 the San Fernando Rey de España Mission was founded, placing most of the valley's land, including the area of North Hills, and its indigenous inhabitants under the mission's jurisdiction. After the independence of Mexico from Spain, an 1833 government decree led to the secularization of the missions in
Alta Alta or ALTA may refer to: Acronyms * Alt-A, short for Alternative A-paper, is a type of US mortgage * American Land Title Association, a national trade association representing the land title industry * American Literary Translators Association, ...
and
Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...
and the San Fernando Mission was officially secularized in 1834. The mission became the head of a parish and the government commissioned a ''
mayordomo Mayordomo ( 'butler') or Chocolate Mayordomo ( 'chocolate butler') is a brand of Mexican (English: 'table chocolate') produced by the company Chocolate Mayordomo De Oaxaca, S. De R.L. De C.V., and based in Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico. The company man ...
'' to oversee the process of secularization and to administer the former mission land.


Rancho land

In 1845, governor
Pío Pico Don (honorific), Don Pío de Jesús Pico IV (May 5, 1801 – September 11, 1894) was a California politician, ranchero, and entrepreneur, famous for serving as the List of governors of California before 1850, last governor of Alta California und ...
signed a 9-year land lease, at $1,120 per year, to his brother
Andrés Pico Andrés Pico (November 18, 1810 – February 14, 1876) was a Californio who became a successful rancher, fought in the contested Battle of San Pascual during the Mexican–American War, and negotiated promises of post-war protections for Calif ...
and his business partner Juan Manso who used it for cattle ranching. In the wake of the American intervention in Mexico, the governor put the land up for sale as the Rancho Ex-Misión de San Fernando to raise funds. The ranch lands were sold to Spanish merchant Eulogio de Celis for $14,000 in June 17, 1846. A portion of land lying just north of modern North Hills surrounding the mission complex was reserved for Andrés Pico and became known as the Pico Reserve."Andreas Pico Adobe"
, ''The Branding Iron,'' December 1976, Number 124; reprinted by the San Fernando Valley Historical Society, 1977; accessed 11 October 2011
The Mexican armed resistance to the American intervention ceased in the beginning of 1848 and the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...
ceded the
California Territory The history of California can be divided into the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American period (about 10,000 years ago until 1542), the Exploration of North America, European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish colonial ...
to the United States. The Treaty provided that the Mexican land grants would be honored and American officials acquired Spanish and Mexican records to confirm titles. Eulogio de Celis filed his claim to the rancho lands in October 1852, but the land grant was not formally upheld by the U.S. District Court until January 1873, after he had returned to Spain and four years after his death. In the mean time, Andrés Pico paid de Celis' lawyer,
Edward Vischer Edward Vischer (1809–1878) was a German-born painter and photographer who migrated from Germany to Mexico at the age of nineteen. He is best known for his pencil sketches of California landscapes throughout the 1860s and 1870s. Career In ...
, $15,000 for an undivided half-
interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a debtor or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct f ...
in the rancho in 1854, the same year Pico's lease expired. The land was divided along a line which roughly follows
Roscoe Boulevard Roscoe Boulevard is a major east–west arterial road that runs for across the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Name There are two theories as to how Roscoe Boulevard got its name. The first is that it is named after a Southern ...
, now considered North Hills' southern boundary, and the southern half was sold to Pico. Andrés eventually sold his half-interest in the rancho to his brother Pío in 1862, retaining the 2,000 acre Pico Reserve; in turn, Pío sold the interest to the San Fernando Farm Homestead Association for $115,000 in 1869; this association went through several name changes, eventually becoming the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company. In a 1871
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...
of the rancho, the North Hills area is shown to be an undeveloped land crossed by a road which led to the Pico Reserve and the mission in the north from the
Rancho Los Encinos Rancho Los Encinos (also Rancho El Encino and Rancho Encino) was a Spanish grazing concession, and later Mexican land granted cattle and sheep rancho and travelers way-station on the El Camino Real in the San Fernando Valley, in present-day E ...
in the south. A sheep camp is shown to have been located just north of the ranch partition line on the west bank of the
Pacoima Wash Pacoima Wash, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 is a major tributary of the Tujunga Wash, itself a tributary of the Los Angeles River, in the San Fer ...
, which corresponds to the southeast end of modern North Hills. De Celis died in Spain in 1869 and his son Eulogio F. de Celis returned as the administrator of his father's estate which was later finally patented to his father by the government on January 8, 1873. After negotiations between the heirs of de Celis and the San Fernando Farm Homestead Association, the valley was formally divided into north and south. The heirs then sold the remaining northern half of the rancho, which includes present-day North Hills, to
Charles Maclay Charles Maclay (November 9, 1822 – July 19, 1890) was a California state senator and is known for his act of purchasing a 56,000 acre land grant in 1874, what was known as San Fernando Rancho, and using the land to found the city of ...
and George K. Porter in 1875 for $125,000. With this, the Rancho era essentially ended in the San Fernando Valley; land divisions continued, what remained of the original mission agriculture fell into disuse, and the remaining indigenous population nearly disappeared from the region.


Porter land

The former rancho land was placed under Porter's name and he owned a three-fourths interest in the property, with Maclay owning the remaining quarter. Porter saw the valley as a site with potential for agricultural development, whereas Maclay was more focused on its colonization. In order to pay off the de Celis mortgage, they counted on the success of the town of
San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...
, which had then been newly platted along the
Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
. A local bank failure and the departure of railroad workers led to a collapse in the real estate boom which made Maclay turn to renting land for sheep pasture and farming; then, a drought in 1876 and 1877 led to the failure of grain fields and the death of tens of thousands of sheep. Maclay was unable to meet the mortgage and de Celis filed for foreclosure in July 1876; the Los Angeles district court found Maclay personally liable for the mortgage payment in June 1877 and ordered the sale of his quarter interest, and that if the sale was insufficient to meet the mortgage, then Porter's interest would also be sold. While they managed to delay the foreclosure for two years, the interest accumulated. In July 1879, the Maclay portion was sold to Benjamin F. Porter and, because the sale amount was insufficient, George Porter's remaining share was sold to Josefa A. de Celis. George managed to reobtain his interest in April 1880 thanks to his agent, Francis M. Wright, a valley farmer. In February 1881, Maclay and the Porters reached an agreement to partition the land. Maclay kept a third of the land lying north of the railroad and east of the
Pacoima Wash Pacoima Wash, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 is a major tributary of the Tujunga Wash, itself a tributary of the Los Angeles River, in the San Fer ...
called the Maclay Rancho, the Porters kept the remaining two-thirds to the west. In 1881, the Porter cousins split their holdings and George received the portion between the Pacoima Wash in the east and Aliso Canyon, about current-day Zelzah Avenue, in the west. George Porter's land included all of current North Hills. In 1887, George K. Porter subdivided the land and established the Porter Land and Water Company to take advantage of a land sales boom. Nearly 17,000 acres were subdivided into ten and forty acre lots with an irrigation system sufficient for 4,000 acres. John B. Baskin, a partner and sales agent of the company began an extensive marketing and promotional campaign for the land subdivision; a frequent motif of the marketing is the remains of the mission which was surrounded by the tract. Baskin also hired California State Engineer
William Hammond Hall William Hammond Hall (1846–1934) was a civil engineer who was the first State Engineer of California, and designed Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Biography William Hammond Hall was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, on February 12, ...
to develop an irrigation plan for water derived from the local springs and arroyos like the Pacoima Wash. The boom began to fade by the end of 1888 and went bust the next year with internal company problems and declining national and local economies which preceded the
Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...
; the decline would also be exacerbated by severe droughts in the 1890s. In October 1903, Porter sold his firm and transferred remaining lands to a syndicate led by Leslie C. Brand which was incorporated as the San Fernando Mission Land Company.


Community development

The 20th century began with important developments for the San Fernando Valley which led to its rapid settlement. In 1905, the City of Los Angeles announced its plans to bring water to the city from the Owens Valley and began construction on the
Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley ...
in 1908; the future arrival of water to the valley spurred development.Link 1991, pp. 36–38 The southern half of the former rancho lands were bought from the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Co. by a syndicate incorporated as the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, and the towns of
Van Nuys Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1 ...
,
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, and Owensmouth were planned out along with a system of highways.Roderick 2001, p. 48 The
Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...
also began an expansion into the valley which reached the burgeoning community of Van Nuys in December 1911, and was completed with its arrival in the city of San Fernando in March 1913, allowing better connections to Los Angeles from the valley. The San Fernando Mission Land Co. began to market its then over 16,000 acres of land to the public in April 1912, advertising five, ten, and fifteen acre tracts adapted to citriculture and other agricultural uses. In October 1912, The Angeles Mesa Land Company purchased Henry E. Huntington's one-tenth share in the Mission Land property holdings. The companies began to invest in the extension of the railway to San Fernando and the construction of a 4-mile boulevard, named Brand Boulevard, to connect San Fernando to Van Nuys on Sherman Way, hoping to open it for use when the Los Angeles Aqueduct is inaugurated. Work on Brand Boulevard advanced and workers began to spread asphalt on the first mile by mid-1913; one side of the road was designed for exclusive use by automobiles, while the other was multi-use for trucks, heavy wagons, and horse-drawn vehicles. The aqueduct water reached the valley in November, 1913. Mission Acres was an agricultural community made by early developers who created 1 acre plots for agricultural activities, with irrigation supplied by the
Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley ...
in 1913. The community was a stop for the
Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned Public transport, mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electr ...
railway streetcars that transported passengers from downtown Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley. Residents of Mission Acres renamed the area Sepulveda in 1927. The
Californio Californios (singular Californio) are Californians of Spaniards, Spanish descent, especially those descended from settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish language in C ...
Sepulveda family, going back to the founding of the
Pueblo of Los Angeles Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settleme ...
, is the source of various Los Angeles place-names, including the post-war community of Sepulveda.
Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda ...
is the primary north–south street through North Hills, crossing
Sepulveda Pass Sepulveda Pass (elevation ) is a low mountain pass through the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles. It is named after the Sepúlveda family of California, a prominent Californio family that owned the land where the pass lies. It connects ...
to the south. The community saw significant growth between the 1930s and the 1950s. In 1937, councilman Jim Wilson offered a resolution that instructed the city's real estate agent to make the right of way cost appraisal for diverting flood waters from Wilson and East Canyons into Pacoima Wash to protect the community of Sepulveda from floods that occurred during heavy storms. This same year, the Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church was built and the parish was established years later in 1944.


Post World War II

The area remained mostly rural through the 1940s, urbanization initiated during the 1950s during which the entire San Fernando Valley was experiencing a transition from semi-rural and agricultural uses into suburban development patterns.
Multi-family residential Multifamily residential, also known as multidwelling unit (MDU), is a classification of housing where multiple separate housing units for residential inhabitants are contained within one building or several buildings within one complex. Units can ...
units began to be developed in the 1960s. Before the construction of the 405,
Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda ...
was a major highway and the neighborhood became a stopping point for travelers to and from Los Angeles.
Motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the Parking lot, parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central Lobby (room), lo ...
s began to be established along Sepulveda. Among these motels is the Good Knight Inn, which began construction in 1945 and featured a façade designed to resemble a castle; by 2023, the motel has continued to run and has retained much of its original form. The Our Lady of Peace Catholic school was being built by 1951 and began to hold classes that year, the school building was officially completed in 1954, followed by various additions. Later that year of 1954, the new Our Lady of Peace church designed by Armet and Davis was completed; the former church structure was repurposed by the parish as Schneider's Hall. By 1956, the school was the largest elementary school in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and remained so for two more years. Plummer Elementary School, designed in the
International style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...
by E. R. C. Billerbeck for LAUSD, was completed in 1952. The Sepulveda Veterans Administration Hospital was completed in a 160-acre property in 1955. After four years of construction, Francisco Sepulveda Junior High School, designed by architect
Arthur Froelich Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...
in the International style, was completed in 1960. With school enrollments expected to surge as the valley's population continued to grow, the 1960 county ballot propositions D and E, which approved bonds of $128,300,000 for elementary schools and $24,700,000 for junior colleges respectively, were passed in the November 8 elections. About a third of the proposed projects, totaling 233 and including 10 new elementary schools, and more than $50,000,000 were assigned to the valley. The propositions found support of valley residents and teachers, with proposition D receiving 139,642 favorable votes against 50,257. Among the projects built from using proposition D funds was Lassen Elementary School in the then recently developed northeast of Sepulveda. The new elementary school's seven original buildings were constructed at a cost of $504,950, with its auditorium and lunch shelter constructed under separate contracts costing $113,448 and $13,000, respectively. A year later, Lassen, along with one other valley elementary school, opened in January 29, 1962. It started its first spring semester with 700 enrolled students, and 19 faculty members with Mrs. Bonnavier Wildes as the first principal. In 1991, residents of the western half of Sepulveda, west of the
San Diego Freeway The San Diego Freeway is one of the named principal Southern California freeways. It consists of the following two segments: *Interstate 5, from California State Route 94 in San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of South ...
, voted to secede from the eastern section to form a new community named North Hills. The City of Los Angeles soon changed the name of remaining Sepulveda to North Hills also. The city then formed a new sub-neighborhood of "North Hills West" which begins west of the 405 freeway and goes to Bull Creek Wash/Balboa Blvd. and from Roscoe Blvd. to Devonshire St.Neilson 2009 The eastern section became the sub-neighborhood of North Hills East. North Hills East boundaries are east of the 405-San Diego Freeway, along the Pacoima Wash, South of Lassen, and North of Roscoe.2010 Census tracts data. In June 1999, a damaged airplane landed safely on Hayvenhurst Avenue on its way to
Van Nuys Airport Van Nuys Airport is a public airport in the Van Nuys neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles. The airport is operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a branch of the Los Angeles city government, which also operates Los Angeles Internat ...
. By the year 2000, the neighborhood had a population of 52,333; Compared to 1990, North Hills had a population increase of 22% by the year 2000, among the highest total increase in the Valley, with a significant increase in
Latino American Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans who have a Spanish or Latin American background, culture, or family origin. This demographic group includes all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race. According to th ...
(73.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (52.6%) residents. Between January 2010 and January 2011, 300 residents of the community of Woodley Hill signed a petition, initiated by resident Estelle R. Goldman, to separate from North Hills, citing that their issues and property values relate more to Northridge. Woodley Hills is bounded by Lassen and Plummer on the north and south, and by Bull Creek and Woodley on the west and east. The petition was received and filed by the city in April, 2011. The Northridge East Neighborhood Council supported the petition; meanwhile, North Hills West opposed the renaming, stating that property values effects would be minimal and insignificant, that Woodley Hill is a desirable area along with western North Hills and that it would turn Woodley Hill into a less desirable part of Northridge, that stakeholders would potentially want to extend Northridge to the 405 Freeway, that their issues are substantially similar to those of North Hills, and that the change would cause confusion. In early 2012, Goldman stated that she then felt that her statement concerning property values and issues was naïve and she wished to correct it. She amended the reasoning, stating that residents' concerns were that they did not send their children to North Hills Schools, they did not shop in North Hills, and that the nature of the community is purely residential with no businesses or apartments compared to North Hills; she further stated that residents identify more with Northridge because of community interests and socio-economic background. The application eventually gained approval and was adopted on August 3, 2012. While it was initially claimed that neighborhood council boundaries would not be changed, the North Hills West Neighborhood Council approved the transfer of Woodley Hills to Northridge East on March 22, 2013, followed by approval by Northridge East on April 17, and the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners in July. On December 6, 2014, a celebration was held for the opening of the over 13,000 square foot Nanak Sadan Sikh Temple and Community Center at
Nordhoff Street Nordhoff Street is a major east–west arterial road that runs for in the northwest San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Name Nordhoff Street was named after Charles Nordhoff, a 19th-century a journalist whose writings about Califo ...
, followed by the celebration of a regular evening ''diwan''. In late March 2016, a local man, Shehada Issa, murdered his wife, Rabihah, and later his son, Amir "Rocky" Issa, at their home on the 1500 block of Rayen Street in North Hills East. Prosecutors found that Amir's sexual orientation was a motivating factor for his murder, later also classified as a
hate crime Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...
. It was the second killing of an LGBTQ person in the San Fernando Valley in two years, occurring a year after the murder of a trans woman in neighboring Van Nuys. The murder quickly drew attention from the gay community, and local community group Somos Familia Valle organized a rally on April 4 at
Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda ...
and
Nordhoff Street Nordhoff Street is a major east–west arterial road that runs for in the northwest San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Name Nordhoff Street was named after Charles Nordhoff, a 19th-century a journalist whose writings about Califo ...
calling for family acceptance towards LGBTQ children and an end to discrimination and violence in the valley's neighborhoods. In September 2017, Shehada Issa was convicted of two counts of first degree murder with Amir's murder being enhanced as a hate crime, and was sentenced to life in prison; there was an attempt to appeal the conviction, but the state appellate court ruled that there was overwhelming evidence of Issa's guilt and in May 2020 the state's Supreme Court refused to review the case. As of 2020, about 242 (1.3%) of the approximately 17,977 occupied structures in North Hills were built in 1939 or earlier, 34.9% were built from 1940 to 1959, 34% from 1960 to 1979, 5.2% from 2000 to 2009, 0.9% from 2010 to 2013, and 1% from 2014 or later.


Government


Local government

North Hills is governed locally by the City of Los Angeles and is represented in the
Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the Legislature, lawmaking body for the Government of Los Angeles, city government of Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States. It has 15 members who each represent the 15 city council ...
by the members elected for districts 6, 7 and 12; each district includes three different sections of the neighborhood.


Neighborhood Councils

Both North Hills East and North Hills West Neighborhood Councils work together to improve the overall quality of life in North Hills communities. North Hills West Neighborhood Council was certified in 2003. Their slogan is "Fostering Community," and its logo is of a green tree in the city. The 2012-2014 North Hills West Neighborhood Council was seated into office on September 20, 2012. A northwestern section became part of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council in 2013. North Hills East Neighborhood Council was certified in 2010. It has a growing, multicultural group of neighbors dedicated to service and community activism. In early 2014, North Hills East Neighborhood Council was approved as an Official Certifying Organization for the President's Volunteer Service Awards program, which is an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the same organization responsible for AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. This status as an Official Certifying Organization has enabled the North Hills East Neighborhood Council to verify hours and eligibility for volunteers to receive an award, which, depending on number of hours worked can range from a pin to a personalized letter from the President of the United States. More about the awards can be found here: www.presidentialserviceawards.gov Volunteers do not have to be a resident or stakeholder of North Hills East to qualify for a President's Volunteer Service Award.


Federal and State legislature representation

The neighborhood is represented federally by the congress member elected for
California's 29th congressional district California's 29th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California based in the north central San Fernando Valley. The district is represented by . It includes the city of San Fernando, as well as the Los Ange ...
and both senators from California. On the state level, it is represented by the state assembly member elected for
California's 46th State Assembly District California's 46th State Assembly district is one of 80 California State Assembly districts. It is currently represented by Democrat Jesse Gabriel of North Hollywood. District profile The district encompasses the central and southeastern ...
and the
state senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...
elected for
California's 20th State Senate district California's 20th senatorial district is one of 40 California California State Senate, State Senate districts. It is currently represented by of . District profile The district encompasses most of the San Fernando Valley section of norther ...
.


Demographics


2020 census

In the 2020 census, North Hills had a total population of 53,764 just within its Neighborhood Council boundaries.This includes people counted in the census tracts and census block groups located within the boundaries of the North Hills West and North Hills East Neighborhood Councils. The population in the 91343
ZCTA ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics. These were introduced with the Census 2000 and continued with the 2010 Census and 5 year American Community ...
was 62,595; this covers all of North Hills West and most of North Hills East boundaries, while including portions within Northridge East and Granada Hills South's boundaries. The average
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
is about 10,591.4 per square mile within the ZTCA's 5.91 square miles. 31,132 people (49.7%) were identified as male and 31,463 (50.3%) as female. The 2020 age distribution was 14,684 people (23.5%) under 18, 6,599 people (10.5%) from 18 to 24, 17,925 people (28.6%) from 25 to 44, 15,458 people (24.7%) from 45 to 64, and 7,929 people (12.7%) who were 65 or older, The median age was 35.8.


Housing

There were 18,545 housing units, at an average density of 3,137.9 units per square mile, of which 18,117 units were occupied and 428 were vacant. 9,127 occupied units (50.4%) were owned; 7,470 (81.8% of owner-occupied units) were owned with a mortgage or a loan and the remaining 1,657 (18.2%) were owned free and clear. 8,990 units (49.6% of occupied units) were rented. In terms of household size, 2,828 units (14.6%) were 1-person households, 4,005 units (22.1%) had 2 people, 10,281 (56.7%) had 3 to 6 people, and 1,003 (5.5%) had 7 or more. 14,173 units (78.2%) were family households; 8,942 (63.1% of family households) were married couple family households and the remaining 5,231 (36.9%) were occupied by families with unmarried householders. 3,944 units (21.8%) were nonfamily households. Of vacant units, 211 were for rent and 13 were rented but not occupied, 17 were for sale and 21 were sold but not occupied, and 11 were for seasonal, recreational, or occasional use.


Race and ethnicity

In 2020, the makeup of racial identity in North Hills included: 16,580 (26.5%) people who identified as
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 2,704 (4.3%) as Black or African-American, 1,035 (1.7%) Native American, 9,606 (15.3%) Asian, 98 (0.02%)
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 23,701 (37.9%) identified as other races, and 8,871 (14.2%) as
two or more races Multiracial Americans, also known as mixed-race Americans, are Americans who have mixed ancestry of two or more races. The term may also include Americans of mixed-race ancestry who self-identify with just one group culturally and socially (cf. t ...
. 12,012 people identified as
Non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic Whites, also referred to as White Anglo Americans or Non-Latino Whites, are White Americans who are classified by the United States census as "White" and not of Hispanic or Latino origin. According to annual estimates from the Unit ...
(19.2% of total pop., 72.4% of White people). 36,701 people (58.6%) identified as
Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While many use the terms interchangeably, for example, the United States Census Bureau ...
of any race. At 23,290 people, most Latinos (63.5%) identified as ''some other race'', followed by 7,532 (20.5%) who identified with two or more races; 4,568 (12.4%) Latinos identified as
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 966 (3%) identified as Native American, and 166 (0.5%) identified as
Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
.


Other data

In 2009, the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
s "Mapping L.A." project supplied these North Hills community statistics: median household income: $52,456. Population size is 60,254 according to 2010 Census data. This summarizes both sides of the 405 freeway. The North Hills West neighborhood had 24,000 residents in 2009. The North Hills East neighborhood had nearly 40,000 residents in 2010. According to
Mapping L.A. Mapping L.A. was a 2009 project of the ''Los Angeles Times''. It identified 158 cities and Unincorporated area, unincorporated areas within Los Angeles County, California. It also drew boundary lines for 114 neighborhoods within the Los Angeles, C ...
, Mexican (38.4%) and German (2.8%) were the most common ancestries. Mexico (47.3%) and El Salvador (12.2%) were the most common foreign places of birth in 2000. The 91343 ZCTA had a 60.9% employment rate and had a median household income of $77,790 according to 2022 estimates.


Education


Public schools

The community is served by schools in the
Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a State school, public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the List ...
. Gledhill Street Elementary School, Langdon Avenue Elementary School, Mayall Street School, and Parthenia Street School serve North Hills. Most students attend Sepulveda Middle School. Those students residing west of Woodley Avenue attend Holmes Middle School. North Hills high school students attend James Monroe High School. There are magnet programs in some schools, such as the Sepulveda Middle School which has a Gifted / High Ability Magnet, and Kennedy High School which has an Architecture/Digital Arts Magnet. A school bus is provided if pupils are more than 5 miles away from the school. North Hills West is also served by charter schools of all grades.


Local school district administration

North Hills schools are locally administered by the Regional Superintendent for LAUSD Region North. The neighborhood schools are represented in the LAUSD Board of Education by the members for district 3, which covers most of North Hills West, and district 6, which covers North Hills East and a portion of West including Gledhill Street Elementary and Monroe High.


Public Charter Schools

Valor Academy High School is a free public charter high school in North Hills. It is under the Bright Star Schools administration which operates eight other schools across Los Angeles. Valor Academy Elementary School and Valor Academy Middle School are also in North Hills and within close distance of each other. As of 2025, there are 530 students attending Valor Academy High School.


Private schools

The private and parochial schools in North Hills include Valley Park Baptist, Valley Presbyterian School, Heritage Christian, Our Lady of Peace, and Church of the Living Word.
Los Angeles Baptist High School Los Angeles Baptist High School (LAB) was a Baptist, private, coeducational day school located in North Hills, California with approximately 848 students enrolled in grades 6 through 12. In the summer of 2012, the school was acquired by another ...
also serves the community and in 2012, was combined with Heritage Christian High School. Several North Hills residents serve as host families to international students studying in the US. As of early 2014, about 50 foreign exchange students are attending school in the North Hills area. Host families get to share their way of life and culture with the students, and at the same time learn more about the students and their home countries.


Public library

The
Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California, operating separate from the Los Angeles County Public Library system. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million resid ...
Mid-Valley Regional Branch, one of the biggest in the San Fernando Valley, is located on
Nordhoff Street Nordhoff Street is a major east–west arterial road that runs for in the northwest San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Name Nordhoff Street was named after Charles Nordhoff, a 19th-century a journalist whose writings about Califo ...
at Woodley Avenue in North Hills.


Infrastructure


Transport

California Interstate 405 Interstate 405 (I-405, California English#Freeways, locally referred to as the 405) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I ...
has direct access to the neighborhood on two points: exit 68 on
Roscoe Boulevard Roscoe Boulevard is a major east–west arterial road that runs for across the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Name There are two theories as to how Roscoe Boulevard got its name. The first is that it is named after a Southern ...
and exit 69 on
Nordhoff Street Nordhoff Street is a major east–west arterial road that runs for in the northwest San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Name Nordhoff Street was named after Charles Nordhoff, a 19th-century a journalist whose writings about Califo ...
. Main thoroughfares include Sepulveda and Roscoe boulevards; Hayvenhurst, Woodley, and Haskell avenues; Lassen, Plummer, and Nordhoff streets. These thoroughfares, as is the case in most of the San Fernando Valley, are arranged in a
grid pattern In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at Angle#Types of angles, right angles to each other, forming a wikt:grid, grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, fr ...
with north–south ways labeled as avenues and east–west ways labeled as streets. Bicycle infrastructure in the neighborhood includes marked street-side
bike lane Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor ...
s on Devonshire Street, on
Nordhoff Street Nordhoff Street is a major east–west arterial road that runs for in the northwest San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Name Nordhoff Street was named after Charles Nordhoff, a 19th-century a journalist whose writings about Califo ...
starting eastward from Orion Avenue, Parthenia Street eastward from Burnet Avenue, and south–north lanes on Woodley Avenue. Plummer Street is designated as a bike route, allowing cyclists to share space with other vehicular traffic. The
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), branded as Metro, is the county agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the Transportation in Los Angeles, public transportation system in Los Ang ...
operates Metro Bus local lines 152, 166, 167, 234, and 237 through the neighborhood and the
Los Angeles Department of Transportation The Los Angeles Department of Transportation, commonly referred to as LADOT, is a municipal agency that oversees transportation planning, design, construction, maintenance and operations within the city of Los Angeles. LADOT was created by city o ...
's Panorama City/Van Nuys DASH route also runs through part of the neighborhood.


Parks and recreation

There are few public parks and recreational facilities within the neighborhood. North Hills Community Park is a recreational space in the more densely populated area of North Hills East, with a children's play areas and sports facilities which host several youth sports programs. The park was established in 2001 as Sepulveda Park West, and it continues to be the only proper recreational park within the neighborhood as of 2024. The Mid-Valley Library in North Hills West is in a site which had been previously dedicated as the Nordhoff Recreation Center in 1978 before funds were available to build the library. The library building and parking spaces covered more than half of the original site when the park became the library campus in 1996, but an open grassy area with paved footpaths and benches remains. More parkland and recreational facilities are located outside the neighborhood. The large, , Sepulveda Recreation Center provides access to parkland and recreational facilities to residents, especially those in North Hills East. Despite sharing North Hills' former name, it is actually located in Panorama City, just outside the neighborhood's east boundary on the Pacoima Wash. Other parks near North Hills East include the
Albert Piantanida Intergenerational Center Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert Computers, Inc., a computer manufacturer in the 1980s * Albert Czech Republic, a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street mar ...
, and Marson Street Pocket Park, both in Panorama City, as well as Devonwood Park in Mission Hills. To the west, Dearborn Park in Northridge also provides recreation and parkland to residents. In 2022, there was an unsuccessful movement by community members and residents to prevent the construction of a new charter school on Plummer Street in North Hills East and promoting the creation of a park. They cited a desire to preserve and create a public use for a historic house on the site which dates to the settlement of Mission Acres and was designated as a
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria. History The Historic-Cul ...
, and the lack of green space in the neighborhood. While the house is to be preserved, plans went forward for the construction of the Valor Academy Elementary School.


Healthcare

North Hills is home to the large
Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...
Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center campus, which serves veterans in the San Fernando Valley, with residential and outpatient care.


Landmarks

A
ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern ...
poodle The Poodle, called the in German () and the in French, is a breed of water dog. The breed is divided into four varieties based on size, the Standard Poodle, Medium Poodle, Miniature Poodle and Toy Poodle, although the Medium Poodle is no ...
living sculpture Living sculpture is any type of sculpture that is created with living, growing grasses, vines, plants or trees. It can be functional and/or ornamental. There are several different types of living sculpture techniques, including topiary (prune plant ...
is located on a
utility pole A utility pole, commonly referred to as a transmission pole, telephone pole, telecommunication pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post, is a column or post used to support overhead power lines and various other public util ...
at Plummer Street and Hayvenhurst Avenue, next to Bull Creek. The poodle was originally sculpted by North Hills resident Brian Welch in the 1980s and it quickly became a local celebrity. The
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal Public utility, utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021–2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of wat ...
ordered the sculpture removed in 1987, but Welch ignored the order. In the 2010s, the Welches began a tradition of turning the poodle to a
reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...
each December.


Filming locations

Many locations in North Hills have been used for various films, including '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', ''
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
'', '' Halloween II'', '' American Beauty'', and '' Step Brothers''. Several of these films shot in the Sepulveda VA Clinic, such as ''Step Brothers'', where the area was used to film a fight between two men and a group of kids. Additionally, one of the most famous moments in ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', in which the T-1000 drives a
semi-truck A semi-trailer truck (also known by a wide variety of other terms – see below) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called a ...
through an overpass wall and into a channelized river, was filmed at Bull Creek's Plummer Street/Hayvenhurst Avenue overpass.


Notable people

*
Bart Andrus Bart Andrus (born March 30, 1958) is an American football coach and a former collegiate player who is the head coach of the Frankfurt Galaxy of the European League of Football (ELF). He has served as head coach for the Amsterdam Admirals of the ...
, professional football coach and former collegiate player * Felix Barajas, soccer player *
Kerry Rossall Kerry Darrell Rossall (born June 23, 1947) is an American stunt coordinator, stuntman, actor and film producer known for three Taurus World Stunt nominations for ''Apocalypse Now Redux'' (2001). He appeared in the films ''Apocalypse Now'' (197 ...
, stuntman and actor * Sharon Shapiro, gymnast


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * *


External links


North Hills West Neighborhood Council

North Hills East Neighborhood Council

''Los Angeles Times'', Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column: "[North Hills:
/nowiki> Treasures amid Valley bustle" (1 Feb 2004)">/nowiki>North Hills:">''Los Angeles Times'', Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column: " {{DEFAULTSORT:North Hills Communities in the San Fernando Valley">/nowiki>North Hills:
/nowiki> Treasures amid Valley bustle" (1 Feb 2004) {{DEFAULTSORT:North Hills Communities in the San Fernando Valley Neighborhoods in Los Angeles