Neighborhood Wants Out of North Hollywood : Name changes: Residents of the southern area of the community say they already consider the area part of Studio City and plan to circulate a petition.

Carrying on the name-change wave that has swept the San Fernando Valley, a movement has begun in a North Hollywood neighborhood to join Studio City.

It would be the eighth such change since the series began in 1986 and the third to take away part of North Hollywood.

The most recent proposal would affect about 800 houses in an L-shaped area bordered by the Ventura Freeway on the north and Vineland Avenue on the east. The area includes the blocks east of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and north of Moorpark Street, and those east of Tujunga Avenue and north of the Los Angeles River.

Abbie Joseph Kantorovich, a real estate broker who lives in the affected area, helped coordinate a meeting Wednesday night to gauge residents’ interest in changing the name of their neighborhood.

More than 200 people showed up, and “I did not get one person who did not favor the name change,” Kantorovich said.

Kantorovich said petitions are being prepared for circulation in the neighborhood. At least 80% of the residents in the area must agree to the change for it to be submitted to the area’s City Council member for approval. The neighborhood is represented by two councilmen, Joel Wachs and John Ferraro, with the majority of the area in Ferraro’s district. Representatives of the two council members said they had not yet been contacted about the proposal.

If it goes through, this would be the third area to secede from North Hollywood. Valley Village was formed in February from an area bordered by Burbank Boulevard on the north, the Tujunga Wash on the west, the Ventura Freeway to the south and the Hollywood Freeway to the east.

Last month, a three-block area of North Hollywood just west of the Tujunga Wash petitioned the City Council to become part of Sherman Oaks, claiming it had become detached from the rest of the community by the official recognition of Valley Village.

Arlene Daniels, an insurance office manager who is leading the latest effort to secede from North Hollywood, said she began thinking about changing the neighborhood’s name soon after moving into her Moorpark Avenue home nearly six years ago.

After Valley Village was formally designated, she decided to do something because now her neighborhood is detached from the rest of North Hollywood, she said.

“It threw us in the middle of a no-man’s land,” Daniels said. “It didn’t make a lot of sense to us. Besides, everybody here thinks they already live in Studio City.”

Susan Levy, president of the North Hollywood Residents Assn., said she was unaware of the proposal, but not surprised.

“Nobody wants to be part of North Hollywood,” Levy said. “Nobody wants to fix things. People are just skirting the problem, rather than trying to work them out.

“But if they want to change their name, that’s fine.”

The name-change wave began in 1986 with the creation of West Hills out of a portion of Canoga Park. In addition to the changes in North Hollywood, portions of Sepulveda and Granada Hills have become North Hills, and two areas of south Van Nuys have joined Sherman Oaks.