Woodland Hills Real Estate

Native Americans from the Fernandeno-Tataviam and Chumash-Venturano tribes lived in the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills near the Arroyo Calabasas (Calabasas Creek) tributary of the Los Angeles River in present-day Woodland Hills for around 8,000 years. In 1769, the Portola Expedition explored Alta California in search of Spanish mission and settlement locations. They were the first Europeans to reach the San Fernando Valley. The oak savanna that can be seen from Sepulveda Pass is what inspired them to call the area El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de Los Encinos (Valley of St. Catherine of Bononia). This mission controlled the land in the valley, including what is now Woodland Hills, when it was established in 1797.

Geography

Woodland Hills is located in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, east of Calabasas and west of Tarzana. It is bordered to the north by West Hills, Canoga Park, Winnetka, and Reseda, and to the south by the Santa Monica Mountains.

The Santa Monica Mountains are at the foot of some neighborhoods. The community is bounded on the east and west by U.S. 101 (the Ventura Freeway) and Ventura Boulevard, which terminates at Valley Circle Boulevard in Woodland Hills.

Climate

Woodland Hills experiences some of the more extreme temperature variations from season to season than other areas in the San Fernando Valley. The summer months are usually very hot, while the winter months are colder than average. A temperature of 121 °F (49 °C) was recorded at Pierce College in Woodland Hills on September 6, 2020, tying with Chino’s reading as the highest ever west of the mountains in Southern California. According to the Köppen climate classification, it has mild winters with rain and hot, dry summers. Mediterranean climates are often associated with this region. Woodland Hills tends to receive about the same amount of precipitation as most other regions of the west San Fernando Valley, although somewhat higher amounts occur in the surrounding hills.

Woodland Hills had a population of approximately 63,000 in 2008. According to other city and county jurisdictions, the median age in 2000 was 40.

Woodland Hills had 67,006 people and 29,119 households in the 2000 census, according to the Los Angeles Almanac. There were 79% of Whites, 6.97% Asians, 0.13% Pacific Islanders, 3.34% African Americans, 0.33% Native Americans, 4.80% from other races, and 4.52% from two or more races in the neighborhood. Hispanics of any race made up 11.94% of the population.

Population-wise, it is one of Los Angeles’s least dense neighborhoods, and a high percentage of the county’s population is white. In both the city and county, 47.0% of residents 25 and older have four-year college degrees.

These Woodland Hills neighborhood statistics are courtesy of the 2008 Los Angeles Times’s “Mapping L.A.” project: population: 59,661; median household income: $93,720. According to the Times, this figure was “high for Los Angeles and for the county as a whole.”

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools serving Woodland Hills are under the jurisdiction the Los Angeles Unified School District. Much of the area is within Board District 4.^[25]

Elementary schools include:

• Calabash Street Elementary School^[26]
• Lockhurst Elementary School
• Serrania Elementary School^[27]
• Woodlake Avenue Elementary School^[28]
• Woodland Hills Charter for Enriched Studies^[29]
• Ivy Academia Entrepreneurial Charter School^[30]
• Calvert Street Elementary School

Middle schools include:

• Woodland Hills Charter Academy (formerly known as Parkman Middle School)^[31]
  • The school opened in 1959 as “Parkman Junior High School.” It received its current name in 2006.^[32]
• George Ellery Hale Charter Academy

High schools include:

• El Camino Real High School
• William Howard Taft High School
• Henry David Thoreau Continuation High School

Adult School:

• West Valley Occuptional Center, 6200 Winnetka Avenue^[33]

Charter schools

• El Camino Real High School
• William Howard Taft High School
• Ingenium Charter School – Kindergarten through Sixth Grade
• George Ellery Hale Charter Academy 6–8 grade
• Chime Charter School K-8
• Serrania Charter for Enriched Studies – K-5
• Calvert School for Enriched Studies – K-5

Private schools

• The Alexandria Academy – secular school serving First through Twelfth Grade
• Halsey Schools – 6 weeks – 6 years.^[34]
• Louisville High School – All-female Catholic High School
• St. Bernardine of Siena – preschool through Eighth Grade
• St. Mel – preschool through Eighth Grade
• Woodland Hills Private School – serving Preschool (starting at 2 years old) through Fifth Grade.^[35]

Lycée International de Los Angeles had a Woodland Hills campus, which had over 140 students as of 2001. This was in a public school building,^[36] rented from the Los Angeles Unified School District. In 2001 LAUSD announced that it would not renew the lease.^[37]

Lycée Français de Los Angeles operated a San Fernando Valley campus in Woodland Hills,^[38] on the site of Platt Elementary School.^[39]

Colleges and universities

Colleges and universities in Woodland Hills include:

• Los Angeles Pierce College (part of the Los Angeles Community College District)

Private equity golf club Woodland Hills Country Club is located in Woodland Hills. A golf course, fine dining, and entertainment options are available at the country club.

There is a 19-acre park called Shoup Park at the Woodland Hills Recreation Center. There is an indoor gym in the park without weights, with a capacity of 300 people. It may be used as an auditorium. There are also lighted baseball diamonds, outdoor lighted basketball courts, a children’s play area, a lighted football field, picnic tables, a lighted soccer field, and lighted tennis courts in the park. Outdoor seasonal unheated swimming pool, Woodland Hills Pool is located in Woodland Hills.

Woodland Hills is home to Warner Center Park, also known as Warner Ranch Park. Playgrounds and picnic tables are available in the park, which is unstaffed and unlocked. Serrania Park is a pocket park in Woodland Hills that is unmanned and unlocked. Playgrounds, hiking trails, and picnic tables are available. Located in Woodland Hills, Alizaondo Drive Park is unstaffed, unlocked, and undeveloped. It is used for brush clearance once per year.

The Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve lies along the western boundary of Woodland Hills, a regional park featuring miles of hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian trails. The trailhead and parking are located west of Victory Boulevard in Woodland Hills. There are scheduled walks and programs. To the south of the community are several parks within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Views of the verdant Woodland Hills neighborhoods and the Valley can be seen from the Top of Topanga Overlook.