‘Different World’ Lies at Freeway Exits : Walnut: Despite 133% growth in a decade, horse trails and hills help it retain the feeling of being out in the country.

A decade ago, the city of Walnut was mostly rolling hills, horse ranches and orange groves.

But as the Southland real estate market boomed in the 1980s, Walnut took off, increasing in population by 133% between 1980 and 1990, the second fastest growing city in Los Angeles County, trailing only Palmdale.

Walnut is built in and around the San Jose Hills and the Puente Hills and is bordered by the San Bernardino Freeway to the north, the Pomona Freeway to the south and the Orange Freeway to the east.

New home buyers discovering the luxury homes and spectacular views in Walnut found they could get off any one of those freeways and be home in 10 minutes.

Sam Tuccio, a marketing director at a Pasadena aerospace firm, makes a 35-minute commute to his job from his home in Walnut’s Timberline development. He and his wife, Jenney, moved from Manhattan Beach a little over a year ago.

“We were looking for a new home and we liked Walnut because it was similar to Westlake Village, where we lived (before moving to Manhattan Beach because of a job change),” Tuccio said. “It is very residential, hilly and spacious.”

The Tuccios’ five-bedroom, 2,800-square-foot view home cost $490,000. They have already put a pool and Jacuzzi into the back yard and Sam has been elected president of the Timberline homeowners’ association.

“The people in City Hall seem very keenly interested in making sure they do the right thing for the town. They’re very friendly and open,” he said.

Bill Daley, a former three-term city mayor, calls Walnut a sanctuary from the crime and crowds of Los Angeles County. “When I turn off the freeway, I’m in a different world,” said Daley, now a real estate agent with Red Carpet.

With wide, landscaped streets, homes less than 10 years old, 24 miles of city-owned equestrian and hiking trails, excellent schools and one of the lowest crime rates in the county, Walnut has more in common with the upscale, master-planned communities of south Orange County than it does with its San Gabriel Valley neighbors.

There is one apartment complex and one townhouse development in Walnut, but no condominiums, attached homes or mobile-home parks. Aside from two supermarket shopping centers, there is no commercial space in the city.

Daley said a typical 1,600-square-foot, four-bedroom home sells for about $263,000. An older, three-bedroom home might sell for under $150,000, he said, and one of the larger homes with a view and acreage for horses could go for upward of $1.5 million. Minimum lot size under the master plan is one-fifth of an acre, Daley said, and some houses are set on as much as an acre and a half.

June Wentworth and her husband, Bill, have lived in Walnut for 25 years. They purchased their three-bedroom, 2,100-square-foot home for $27,000. Now the house is valued at about $265,000. They have watched the city go from 3,000 residents in the 1960s to 29,105 last year.

“It was sad to see the hills going, but we knew it (development) had to come. We’ve done the best we could to protect our rural environment,” Wentworth said.

While the open space has diminished considerably over the past decade of development, there are still native walnut trees in the city of Walnut. A stand of California black walnuts has been preserved by the city along Grand Avenue, beside the groves of new, luxury homes that are sprouting by the hundreds.

Walnut, incorporated in 1959, was originally part of the Mexican land grant of Jose De La Cruz Lineras, who named his property Rancho de los Nogales or Ranch of the Walnuts. The first commercial walnut grove was introduced in 1912 and walnuts were a major crop until the 1930s; pests and disease virtually eliminated the trees by 1940.

Avocado and citrus trees also were grown and cattle raised in Walnut. The historic W. R. Rowland Adobe-Ranch House in Lemon Creek Park has been restored and is furnished as it was in 1883, when Sheriff William R. Rowland built it for the foreman of his cattle ranch.

Ethnically, Walnut is about 20% Asian, and the number of ethnic Chinese and Korean families moving into the city has grown over the past few years.

One of those families, Edward and Margaret Chang and their two children, bought a 2,600-square-foot, four-bedroom home in Walnut last January. About half the residents of her new neighborhood are of Chinese background, Margaret Chang said.

She and her husband paid $400,000 for their home but said they did not hesitate when they saw the large yard behind the house.

“Walnut has lots of land. We were really surprised when we saw how big the yard was,” said Margaret Chang, an accountant. “The horse trails and the greenery are really relaxing. It’s like a country (feeling) inside a city.”

The second motivation behind the Changs’ move to Walnut was the chance for their son to attend the highly rated Westhoff Elementary School close to their neighborhood. Many of Walnut’s residents, who tend to be well-educated professionals with young children, are motivated to live there because of the school system.

The Walnut Valley Unified School District serves both Walnut and Diamond Bar and has captured top state-wide awards. Kay Knepp, assistant superintendent, said that during the 1989-90 school year, Walnut High School and Suzanne Middle School were both named California Distinguished Schools, an honor granted annually to 150 schools in the state.

Standard achievement test scores for the district’s three high schools, three middle schools and nine elementary schools fall consistently within the top 15% of the state, Knepp said.

Longtime resident Maurice Cofer also moved to Walnut for his family’s sake, but that was back in 1962. He built his own home for the grand total of $19,983.

“We came here because we wanted to be free of concrete sidewalks and restrictions. We wanted to get into an open area where we could rear our children in the dirt and keep our horses. I fell in love with it,” said Cofer, who raised three children in Walnut.

“People come here for the atmosphere of congeniality, freedom and love of open space,” said Cofer, who still lives in the house he built, in the Gartel-Fuerte neighborhood where most of the horse property is located.

Within the Walnut city limits is Mt. San Antonio College, a community college serving 27 surrounding communities. Each year, the largest amateur U.S. track and field meet is held at Mt. SAC, bringing national audiences and attention to the community.

Law enforcement in the city is provided by contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department out of a Walnut substation. Neighborhood Watch programs flourish in the area and the city enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in the county.

“We really have to remind residents to keep their homes and cars locked, that’s how safe it is,” said Lorene Lopez, sheriff’s community affairs officer.

AT A GLANCE Population 1990 estimate: 30,237 1980-89 change: +142.3% Median age: 30 years Annual income Per capita: 15,886 Median household: 57,714 Household distribution Less than $40,000: 22.4% $40,000 - $50,000: 15.9% $50,000 - $75,000: 37.7% $75,000 - $100,000: 15.9% $100,000 + 8.1%