‘Outsiders’ Will Be Insiders, Thanks to Annexation in Hidden Hills

John and Lou Ann Ekman were in for a shock after they moved 13 years ago to exclusive, gate-guarded Hidden Hills at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley.

Although their new home was securely inside the Hidden Hills city gate, the Ekmans discovered that their house was just outside the Hidden Hills city limit.

Because of a dispute among developers years earlier that resulted in a peculiar boundary line, their Long Valley Road home was in Woodland Hills, not Hidden Hills.

That meant their children were supposed to attend Los Angeles city schools instead of the Las Virgenes Unified School District classes that other Hidden Hills youngsters attend.

It meant that they purchased their water and power from different sources than their neighbors and their garbage was picked up on a different day than trash in the rest of Hidden Hills.

A different fire department responded to the Ekmans’ emergencies. And they found themselves relying on Los Angeles police for protection instead of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department like their neighbors.

Worst of all, the Ekmans were technically considered visitors to Hidden Hills each time they passed through the city’s Long Valley Road gate house to go home.

Transfer Worked Out

But the years of frustration are expected to end today, when the final step in a complicated Hidden Hills city annexation takes place and the Ekmans and five other families become Hidden Hills residents.

The Las Virgenes Board of Education also is scheduled to vote during a 7 p.m. session whether to accept the parcels into its school district.

“It’s always been very confusing. At times it’s been traumatic. But we’re patient people,” Lou Ann Ekman said Wednesday. “It’s going to be fun to finally be able to vote in Hidden Hills city elections.”

The land transfer was hammered out by the Hidden Hills City Council after months of negotiations with officials from the county, the City of Los Angeles, the Las Virgenes school district and the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District.

Besides giving the six families resident status in Hidden Hills, the annexation is giving the 30-year-old city its first commercial business--a law office just outside the gate. About five acres outside the gate are included in the area being absorbed into Hidden Hills.

“It’s a good conclusion to a very unusual situation,” Hidden Hills Mayor Alana Knaster said Wednesday.

Exclusive Homes

With million-dollar homes among master-planned private streets and bridle trails that give it a relaxed, country-like atmosphere, Hidden Hills is home to many Los Angeles business leaders and entertainment personalities. The city’s 520 estates feature predominantly rambling ranch-style houses for about 2,000 people--and stables for perhaps as many horses.

Knaster said the boundary mix-up stemmed from a dispute 30 years ago between the early developers of Hidden Hills. One builder refused to let his property be included in the city, even though he was constructing houses inside the freshly completed Hidden Hills gate, she said.

Instead of moving the guard house farther in to fence out the dissident builder, the city’s founders decided to keep the gate where it was. They let the occupants of that builder’s houses come and go, Knaster said.

“The homeowners there never had Hidden Hills resident status. But they’ve never been denied access to their homes,” she said.

House In Two Cities

The old city line split some lots, and at least one home, in half. That meant homeowners received separate tax bills for Los Angeles and Hidden Hills, Knaster said.

“It was a mess,” she said. “There would be times when L. A. police officers and sheriff’s deputies would be called for the same thing. They’d come in and stare at each other.”

Because of such confusion, Los Angeles city officials did not fight Hidden Hills’ annexation plan. Relieved Hidden Hills council members approved it at their monthly meeting in December.

No opposition is expected at tonight’s school board meeting, either.

A separate part of the annexation plan calls for Hidden Hills to take control of a section of Round Meadow Road outside the city’s second gate. The school district owns the section, but Hidden Hills homeowners will assume responsibility for maintenance of the street when the transfer is approved.

The first Hidden Hills commercial zone is on Long Valley Road, just outside the city’s main gate. Two houses have been zoned for commercial use and lawyer Kelly O’Brien is moving her office into one of them, relocating from an Encino high-rise.

Hidden Hills officials said they were eager to obtain control of land outside the city gates in order to control development there.