‘I just want this to go away.’-- Joy Picus, Councilwoman for West Hills, Canoga Park : West Hills Still Growing in Leaps and Boundaries

West Hills, the upstart community created two weeks ago by upscale homeowners in the West San Fernando Valley, bit off another chunk of Canoga Park on Tuesday.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus said she has agreed to expand the boundaries of West Hills to include another two-mile-wide section of Canoga Park.

Instead of Platt and Woodlake avenues, the new dividing line between West Hills and Canoga Park will be Fallbrook Avenue, Picus said.

The new boundary gives West Hills its first major commercial areas, Fallbrook Mall and Platt Village shopping centers, along with several smaller retail strips. The added territory also includes older residential tracts built in flatland areas.

The expansion was blasted by West Hills’ originators, who circulated petitions late last year to get the city to rename merely a small, relatively affluent hilly area of Canoga Park.

‘Very Disappointed’

“I’m very disappointed. Obviously the expanded boundaries are not consistent with what we set out to do,” name-change leader Joel Schiffman said. “It does a lot to erode the community identity we sought.”

Picus said she will not demand petitions for the new area. The councilwoman’s support is enough to effect the name change, which will be carried out by the city Department of Transportation. The change has no effect on city services, or taxes, in the community.

“Everything west of Fallbrook will be OK to be called West Hills,” Picus said.

But shopkeepers whose advertising and business forms use “Canoga Park” addresses will be allowed to continue using that name, she said. So can individual homeowners, if they are so inclined.

Few homeowners, however, are likely to pass up the new West Hills name. Owners of about 77% of the 4,333 residences in the three-square-mile area that originated the West Hills campaign signed name-change petitions. After that, residents of three other Canoga Park areas petitioned City Councilman Hal Bernsen for a similar designation.

Many homeowners expect secession from Canoga Park, with its industrial and working-class areas, to add thousands of dollars to their property values.

Picus approved the first request Jan. 17. Bernsen followed suit Jan. 22.

Since then, residents of other Canoga Park neighborhoods have appealed to the two council members to be included, according to city officials.

Petitions Unwanted, Wanted

“I want no further petitions,” Picus said Tuesday. “I didn’t know this was going to grow. I just want this to go away.”

But Bernsen is requesting petitions before he considers any additions to the part of West Hills north of Roscoe Boulevard, which is in his council district, homeowners said.

“If we get signatures from 60%, we’ll be included,” said homeowner Jill Due, who lives just outside West Hills on Canoga Park’s Santa Susana Place.

“I’d imagine we have about 200 homes in our neighborhood. We want in, of course. We want to divorce ourselves from Canoga Park’s element.”

Picus, who acknowledged that the West Hills originators “aren’t anxious” to gain other areas, said she would allow Schiffman’s group to decide where to place two West Hills signs being prepared by the city.

“I don’t want to further break up Canoga Park,” Picus said. “I’ll be happy when this goes away.”