3 Breakaway Neighborhoods Join West Hills

Three more West Valley neighborhoods adopted the name West Hills Thursday, completing a homeowner-led movement to break away from Canoga Park and create a new identity as a residential community.

At a short ceremony in his Northridge office, Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, who received signatures from 85% of the area’s 2,000 homes in December, unveiled the blue-and-white street signs that will designate the area “West Hills.”

One of the leaders of the name-change drive declared the occasion among the fruits of being American.

“To think that this can only be done in America,” homeowner Marge Fligg said. “No other country would even let you think of doing something like this.”

The three neighborhoods, bordering Chatsworth Reservoir on the east, south and west, will join an area of about 4,700 homes that received the new name in a similar ceremony last week in the offices of Councilwoman Joy Picus.

The community of West Hills, named after an unincorporated pocket of Los Angeles County near Vanowen Street and the Ventura County line, will have no separate legal status, since it is still part of the City of Los Angeles.

However, residents will be able to use the name on their addresses, said Greig Smith, a Bernson aide.