Shangri-La, With an Asterisk : Bell Canyon: Residents of the pricey enclave may pay their taxes to Ventura County, but they work, shop and go to school in Los Angeles County.

Except for the singing of birds and the clop of horses’ hoofs, the streets of Bell Canyon are quiet.

More than 500 white-fenced mini-estates--valued at $800,000 to about $2 million--dot the community, an affluent, little-known enclave at the extreme eastern end of Ventura County.

If casual visitors were allowed--which they’re not--they might think that the people who live in such an idyllic place must lead normal, uncomplicated lives.

Not necessarily.

If you live in Bell Canyon, you pay your property taxes to Ventura County, but your telephone must have a Los Angeles County area code.

In case of fire, the Ventura County Fire Department says it’s responsible for protecting the community. But the Los Angeles City Fire Department says that isn’t so--that in most cases, it’s first on the scene.

If a Bell Canyon family has a medical emergency, the Los Angeles Fire Department will send life-support equipment, but it won’t send paramedics. For paramedics, a family must call a private service located across the Simi Hills in Ventura County.

And since the private service must first travel into Los Angeles County and then double back on the lone road that leads into Bell Canyon, it takes significantly longer to arrive than would a Los Angeles-based service.

It can be confusing, residents say.

“You come through the security gates and you’re in Shangri-La,” said Sarah Berman, wife of comedian Shelley Berman and president of the Bell Canyon Homeowners Assn. “Unfortunately, you’re also in no-man’s-land.”

Bud Toye, a homeowner and president of the Bell Canyon Community Services District, which is responsible for trash removal and other services, believes that the community’s identity problem is understandable.

“We know we’re located in Ventura County, but we work, shop and go to school in L.A. County,” he said. “On the whole, Ventura County officials have been good to us, but we identify with L.A. County.”

“I exhibit my loyalty as often as I can,” said Shelley Berman, who has lived in Bell Canyon for seven years. “I wave to Ventura County as I turn left on the freeway to shop in L.A. County.”

Even if Bell Canyon’s 1,500 residents wanted to shop in their own community, they couldn’t. There are no stores in Bell Canyon. The nearest supermarket is on Platt Avenue in Canoga Park, three miles away.

Adding to the confusion, Bell Canyon switched from the Simi Valley Unified School District in Ventura County to the Las Virgenes district in Los Angeles County several years ago.

There are conflicting reports as to whether this was done to spare the children a long commute or to affiliate with what some parents considered a better school district.

Even the service agency that Toye heads is a refugee from Ventura County. It is partly funded by Bell Canyon homeowners’ property tax revenues that once went to the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District in Simi Valley.

For all its identity problems, Bell Canyon, a 1,672-acre development that opened in 1969, undoubtedly ranks as one of the most attractive residential areas in Southern California.

The minimum lot size for each of the 505 custom-built houses--eventually, the total will reach 796--is half an acre. All front-yard fences must be Western-style, painted white. Each home must have at least a three-car garage.

It’s a horsy community, with streets such as Corral Road, Dapplegray Road and Wrangler Lane. Residents may keep horses on their property, though many choose to board the animals at the community’s equestrian center.

Motorcycles, which tend to frighten horses, are discouraged. Residents are allowed to ride the vehicles, but guests must leave them at the security gate.

As for the residents’ affluence, the median household income in ZIP Code 91307, which includes the less-wealthy Canoga Park as well as Bell Canyon, was estimated in 1990 at $63,145. That compares to an estimated $43,600 for Ventura County as a whole in 1989.

Although Sarah and Shelley Berman, who live in a 6,000-square-foot brick ranch house, are Bell Canyon boosters, Sarah admits that the community’s status as an unincorporated area 30 miles from the seat of Ventura County government can have its drawbacks.

As an example, she cited the single access route, Bell Canyon Boulevard. “It’s a terrible road. If we complain, Ventura County won’t come out because we’re so far away. And L.A. County says, ‘You can’t vote for us, so why should we do anything for you?’ ”

Finally, after years of delay and some serious accidents, the milelong road that leads to the community is being repaved and widened to four lanes by the builders who developed Bell Canyon 21 years ago.

The problem now, Toye said, is that the telephone poles that used to run alongside the road are now in the middle.

“And nobody wants to fix that ,” he said.

Still, Shelley Berman, the once-angry comedian (“Who am I speaking to, please?”), likes living in Bell Canyon so much that he says a drawback of being in a successful play, as he was in Chicago recently, is that it keeps him away too long.

“I love it here,” he said. “It’s much friendlier than Beverly Hills, where we used to live. In Beverly Hills, nobody would dream of borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbor.

“Here, they even borrow pots. One guy borrowed so many pots that I gave him two for Christmas.”

Five mornings a week, the Bermans walk on trails that crisscross the hills around them.

“We start at 6:10 every morning--well, sometimes as late as 6:12. We see wildlife--deer, hawks, owls, bobcats, coyotes. Once, a bird expert came along and we spotted 44 different species of birds.”

Another time, Berman, who has served several terms on the Bell Canyon Security Committee, found a discarded potato-chip bag on one of the trails.

“Uh-oh,” he told his wife. “Vandalism has arrived.”

While officials in both Ventura and Los Angeles counties agree that the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department is responsible for law enforcement in Bell Canyon, there’s less certainty as to other services.

“We cover that area,” said a spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department. But Deputy Chief Donald Anthony of the Los Angeles Fire Department said his agency receives an annual fee from Ventura County for so-called first-responder service in Bell Canyon.

“Chances are 9 out of 10 we’ll be the first there in case of a house fire,” he said.

Sarah Berman said she and most of her neighbors are concerned, but undecided, about the proposed development of the Ahmanson Ranch, which adjoins Bell Canyon on the south and west.

“The developers have visited our board meetings twice,” she said. “They would like to build a road so people could reach their development by going through our area.

“At this stage, I would say most of us have open minds. I know people need housing and I want to be fair, but I wouldn’t be for it if it would threaten wildlife or reduce our open spaces.”

Despite the complications and potential problems, Bell Canyon residents say they wouldn’t live anywhere else.

Marc Silverstein, a businessman who is vice president of the homeowners group, said that practically everybody he knows in the community is on one committee or another.

“And they all get along at their meetings,” he said. “Amazingly, there’s very little friction.”

Terry MacAdam, a real estate agent who claims that her family was the first to move into the development, said one of the things she likes about Bell Canyon is the relative youth of its residents, considering its home prices.

“A 32-year-old attorney just bought a house here,” she said. “A year or so ago, I counted 17 kids living on one street.”

Toye, an amateur historian, said Chumash Indians lived in Bell Canyon hundreds of years ago.

“They knew an ideal place to live when they saw it,” he said.