At Home : Studio City: Village Life in the Valley : Residents like the mix of small-town friendliness and urban sophistication.

When Michael and Cindy Cassutt moved to Studio City as renters in 1979, they dreamed of some day buying a house there. They enjoyed the unusual mix of small-town friendliness and urban sophistication.

In 1984, they bought a house in Van Nuys but still yearned for Studio City.

Today, finally, they are in their dream home, a three-bedroom ranch-style house in a Studio City neighborhood south of Ventura Boulevard known as “The Triangle,” a wedge-shaped neighborhood bordered by Ventura and Laurel Canyon boulevards and Laurel Terrace Drive.

“We were happy in Van Nuys,” Cindy Cassutt said, “but when the family started to expand (they have two children, Ryan, 3 1/2, and Alexandra, 1,), we looked for a larger place. We really wanted to move back to Studio City, and when friends decided to retire, they sold us this house.

“We enjoy the amenities of Ventura Boulevard--restaurants, stores, banks and an honest-to-God neighborhood movie theater--all within walking distance,” said Michael Cassutt, a television writer at Grant Tinker-Gannett Productions.

“On weekends and after work you see your neighbors out walking, jogging or just visiting. There are kids out riding bikes. It’s like a mythical Saturday Evening Post urban neighborhood.”

Older Community

One of the San Fernando Valley’s older communities, Studio City, a suburb of Los Angeles, is bounded on the east by Lankershim Boulevard, on the west by Fulton Avenue, on the north by Riverside Drive and on the south by Mulholland Drive.

Ventura Boulevard, the major east-west artery, separates the posh, hilly subdivisions to the south from the flat residential districts to the north where apartments and condominiums share space with California ranch-style houses. Through most of Studio City, the boulevard is lined with small specialty shops and restaurants that attract an upscale trade.

Most of the houses on Studio City’s tree-lined streets are owner-occupied and reflect a variety of architectural styles. You will find deep lots with ample back yards, many with the proverbial swimming pool and brick barbecue. Beaver Cleaver or Ozzie and Harriet would feel right at home here.

Housing prices reflect the desirability of the area. The few bargains that exist will probably be found north of Ventura Boulevard.

“Properties north of the boulevard are about $25,000 less than those south of the boulevard,” said Marion B. Goodman, an agent with James R. Gary & Co. Ltd. East a Valley realty company.

Pricier to the South

She said that house prices north of the boulevard begin at $260,000. Condos, also north of the boulevard, start at about $175,000.

South of the boulevard, prices rise sharply. In older areas you will have to pay $350,000 or more for a house. Closer to Mulholland Drive, in the Laurelwood area where the streets all begin with the word Donna, prices begin around $600,000 for large houses, most having views and swimming pools.

Briarwood, also known as Fryman Estates, is a hillside community of older homes, many gated, on 1-acre, wooded lots. Here, houses sell for $700,000 and up.

“A lot of people from other parts of the Valley are trading up to Studio City because of its close-in location and village feel,” Goodman said.

Older houses date back to the late 1920s. When Mack Sennett built a movie studio near Ventura and Laurel Canyon boulevards, the surrounding orchards, fields and small residential community became known as Studio City.

Movie Industry

Through the years the district has been a mecca for people employed in the movie and television industries. The Mack Sennett Studio became the Republic Studio. Today, it is operated by CBS/MTM and is a base for independent producers.

“Studio City has a free-spirited feeling from having so many artists in the community,” Goodman said. “That’s a part of its charm.”

Four years ago, Jerry and Eileen Meisner bought a condominium in a neighborhood called “The Grove,” located north of Ventura Boulevard.

They wanted to live freeway-close to Jerry’s job at Universal Studio and Eileen’s job in downtown Los Angeles. Since then, they have purchased a franchise weight-loss business on the border of Studio City and North Hollywood because they wanted to work even nearer to home.

“We’re very city-oriented, and just about everything is nearby,” Eileen added. “This place has the most feeling of community of anywhere I’ve lived in the Los Angeles area.”

Has Rural Past

“I looked all over for just the right house,” said Barry Stuart Wilker, an interior designer who lives in an English cottage with his dogs, Elliott and Bonny. “I wanted a feeling of neighborhood, lots of trees, and a centralized location as my work is all over Southern California. I found what I wanted in Studio City.”

Lois Toolan, a retired teacher, has lived in Studio City for 50 years.

“The area was still very rural in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, with orchards of peach, plum and apricot trees,” she said. “People are astonished when I tell them that we were able to sit on our front porch and watch the cars go by on Whitsett (Avenue) and Ventura Boulevard several blocks away. It’s all built up now.”

Most of the houses of Studio City were built in the post-World War II period when families were looking for a safe haven to raise their children.

“We moved here because it seemed like a little country town,” says Polly Ward, president of the Studio City Residents’ Assn., a group of more than 1,000 members. “I wanted a house within walking distance of a good school. Carpenter Elementary School is still considered a fine school.”

Oppose Over-Development

Residents consider village ambience and central location as the area’s major assets. Most are vigorously opposed to the specter of over-development, which they see as a threat to their life style.

“What we would like is to have Studio City stay just as it is now,” said longtime residents Sam and Buna Bodzin, who live south of Ventura Boulevard.

“Since we moved here in 1961, houses have been taken out in the area north of the boulevard and the properties turned into apartments and condominiums,” Sam Bodzin said. “Traffic has become a hideous problem.”

“I’m terribly worried about cross-mountain traffic,” said Nancy Pohl, who has lived in a large ranch-style home in Briarcliff since 1950.

Pohl and her husband, a retired vice president of Technicolor Corp., were among the founders of a residents’ group, the Briarcliff Improvement Assn. In the 1970s the association fought construction of a freeway through Laurel Canyon. Earlier, they successfully opposed several subdivisions whose developers had proposed building houses on small hillside lots.

Large Homes, Small Lots

“We feel, traffic-wise, that everything is overdeveloped. We’re unhappy about a proposed housing development above us that will remove old oak trees and a stream. I suppose it’s not right to keep people out of the area, but we do have concern in years of heavy rain if the hillsides are further developed.”

Ward, of the Studio City Residents’ Assn., worries about inappropriate development.

“The residents are concerned about construction of large homes in the wrong place, unsuited to their environment. Large houses built on small lots gouged out of the hillside don’t fit the architectural mix of the community,” she said.

Residents are also concerned about the proliferation of strip shopping centers along Ventura Boulevard. Employees and shoppers park on residential streets, annoying homeowners. Some want parking restricted to residents.

“We feel that we’ve been given very little consideration as far as the decision-making of developments that affect our life,” said Walt McIntyre, president of Briarcliff Improvement Assn.

Backs Shopping Complex

“The traffic on Laurel and Coldwater canyons between 7 and 9 in the morning and from 4 to 6 in the afternoon is terrible. Sometimes the traffic gets backed up a mile. That’s why we are opposed to the city going up into the hills. We’re not anti-development if it’s appropriate. The Briarcliff Improvement Assn. and the Studio City Residents Assn. supported the Coldwater Collection,” he said.

The Coldwater Collection is a shopping and restaurant complex at Coldwater Canyon and Ventura boulevards, which will include shops and the Bistro Garden restaurant.

Most residents do not approve of the proposed project at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura where a Unocal station and carwash and a Tiny Naylor restaurant are slated for demolition to be replaced by Laurel Promenade, a shopping center.

“I’ve never seen an issue that has brought about such a unanimous feeling among residents,” Ward said.

“The proposed shopping center is guaranteed to increase traffic,” Sondra Frohlich said. “The Chamber of Commerce has opposed the development.”

‘Many Mini-Malls’

“Residents are upset about losing a very needed service for the community,” says Jack McGrath, a commercial real estate broker who heads “Save Our Corner,” a citizens’ group that opposes the demolition.

“We’ve watched the demolition of six gas stations in the area. In the past five years so many mini-malls have been built that now there is a high vacancy rate. There’s a limit to how much we can consume as a neighborhood.”

Ira Smedra, developer of Laurel Promenade, denies that the project will take away needed services. “There are four car washes within 1 mile of the center and a gas station across the street,” he said.

“Laurel Promenade is a tasteful retail development with incredible landscaping. We have proposals in hand for tenants to fill almost 60% of the space. We have also agreed to widen the north side of Laurel Canyon Boulevard to alleviate the traffic problem.” Despite this controversy, Studio City residents treasure the residential character of their community, which they see as a haven in the Southern California urban sprawl.

Cindy Cassutt, formerly a photo editor with TV Guide, has decided to stay at home as a full-time mother. She and other young mothers in “The Triangle” have formed a coffee group that meets on a regular basis.

“Our folks live in the Midwest,” Michael Cassutt said. “If you can’t have your family nearby, in Studio City you can have an extended family of your neighbors. It reminds me of my hometown.”

AT A GLANCE Population

1989 estimate: 25,694

1980-89 change: 9.8%

Median age: 41.7 years

Racial/ethnic mix

White (non-Latino): 87.9%

Latino: 7%

Other: 3.4%

Black: 1.7%

Annual income

Per capita: $30,342

Median household: $43,447

Household distribution

Less than $15,000: 16.2%

$15,000 - $30,000: 18.2%

$30,000 - $50,000: 23%

$50,000 - $75,000: 16.8%

$75,000 + 25.8%