Hilltop Community Has Only One Way in : Montecito Heights: Rural atmosphere combines with short commute and low prices to hold those who find it.

Abundant wildlife, open space and a regional park aren’t what most expect of a neighborhood five miles from Los Angeles City Hall, but that’s what the hillside community of Montecito Heights offers.

For years, Montecito Heights has sat, figuratively, in the shadow of Mount Washington, its larger, better-known neighbor across the Pasadena Freeway. But hefty urban real-estate costs and the quest for reasonably priced homes near downtown Los Angeles have brought new attention to the relatively undiscovered, relatively affordable area.

Lying between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, east of the Pasadena Freeway, Montecito Heights (“montecito” is Spanish for “little mountain”) is made up mainly of hillside homes with spectacular views,

“The hill,” as many residents call the neighborhood’s more desirable area, is actually two hills that rise 800 feet above surrounding Lincoln Park. The community of nearly 400 homes offers residents a variety of views--from vistas spanning Griffith Park and downtown Los Angeles to those stretching miles across the Pacific to Santa Catalina Island.

Annette Carter, 47, an 11-year Montecito Heights resident and president of the Montecito Heights Improvement Assn., has one of the most expansive views from her Elderbank Drive home--a cityscape that includes Dodger Stadium, the downtown Los Angeles skyline, and parts of San Gabriel Valley.

Carter and her husband, Bob, 53, a state administrator, first bought a rental home in Montecito Heights in 1972. In 1980, they moved here themselves from the Westside after raising their three children. They paid $107,000 for their second house, a 1,650-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bath house that has recently been appraised at more than $300,000,

Like many in Montecito Heights, the Carters don’t have a usable yard to speak of--their house hangs above a steep slope. But, she says, the view makes up for the missing yard, as does the neighborhood’s central location.

The neighborhood’s easy downtown commute has long been an important factor. In fact, its proximity to downtown Los Angeles was a highly touted feature in a 1917 promotional brochure by the Mutual Home Building Corp., which began selling lots more than 70 years ago in the then-barren hills. The pamphlet boasted “Montecito”--as it was named--was an easy commute for downtown workers, “just 20-minutes . . . with 5-cent car service.”

Today, that commute takes 10 to 15 minutes--an attraction to many professionals who are tired of long drives to work. But even more enticing are the home values, says Eric Toro, realtor with Uptown Properties.

“You get a lot more space than you would in some of the other hill areas nearby and that’s because Montecito Heights just hasn’t been discovered at this point,” he said.

The lowest priced homes on the hill run about $200,000. A few homes are priced near or above $400,000 with one very large home advertised at $825,000. The median price is in the low- to mid-$200,000 range, Toro said.

Derrich Sheldon, a realtor with Fred Sands, says the neighborhood remains affordable because few know about it.

“Most people aren’t aware of Montecito Heights simply because there’s really only one way to get to it,” he said.

While Montecito Heights is clearly visible from miles away, its main thoroughfare, Montecito Drive, is a bit off the beaten path.

Like Montecito Drive, the neighborhood begins at Griffin Avenue, a block north of Avenue 43, then wends its way 1.6 miles to Montecito Circle--the original rail car turnaround point--and down Roberta Street. A couple, less-traveled streets off the top of Montecito Drive empty into Lincoln Heights and provide easy access to North Broadway.

Resident Rich Osborne, a real-estate agent in her 40s and former Mount Washington resident, had never even heard of Montecito Heights until slightly more than a year ago when she saw a listing for a 1,400-square-foot, two-story home. She brought a client to see the Montecito Drive house and ended up buying it herself.

“It was the view and the fact that it was an affordable, contemporary home with all the amenities,” she said. “This same house, if I had to buy it in Laurel Canyon, would have cost about $550,000.”

Instead, Osborne spent $200,000 for the house in March, 1990, that, along with an expansive city view, has two bedrooms, a den and 1 1/2 baths.”More than anything else, Montecito Heights has the greatest neighbors. It’s a friendly hillside and I like the ethnic mix. We have all kinds of people living here.”

Judges, doctors, lawyers, plumbers, police officers, artists and a variety of blue-collar workers all call the hill home, as do whites, Latinos, Asians, blacks, gay and interracial couples.

“There’s a real cultural acceptance here whether you’re straight, gay, black or white,” said resident Richard Shorer. “It’s a very liberal community with a live-and-let-live attitude. If you want ‘Leave-It-to-Beaver’ style don’t move here.”

Shorer, an industrial supplier-turned-realtor and his wife, Sharon, an elementary schoolteacher, moved from Eagle Rock to Montecito Heights five years ago. Recently, they finished a $150,000 remodeling job, expanding their Montecito Drive home into a 2,200-square-foot country-style house that overlooks the adjacent rolling hills of Ernest E. Debs Regional Park.

For the Shorers, both 44, living next door to the rural park offers a lifestyle they never dreamed possible so close to downtown Los Angeles.

“You can go into the park and walk a trail for an hour-and-a-half to two hours without walking into anybody,” Richard Shorer said. “That’s a pretty nice thing to have in your back yard.”

“It’s like an oasis in the big city,” agreed Sharon Shorer. “I like the remoteness here, we have owls living in our trees and all kinds of animals.”

On the downside, the neighborhood has little to offer families with school-age children as the Los Angeles City schools that serve the area are overcrowded and show below-district averages for basic-skill test scores. Moreover, the mostly hilly yards and the steep, curvy roads are not conducive to bike riding, skateboarding and other childhood pastimes,

Still, there are those, such as 67-year-old foster mother Maria Espinoza, who do raise families on the hill. The 35-year resident reared her own four children and foster children at the Roberta Street home she and her now-deceased husband built.

Espinoza says the biggest change during the past three decades is the number of new homes on the hill. When she moved to Roberta Street, hers was among only a few dozen houses.

“Four or five years later, people started moving their houses here from Long Beach and places like that,” she recalls. “I used to see houses being pulled up the street.”

In more recent years, she’s seen a building and remodeling boom that she says has improved the area.

She, too, said the tranquility of the neighborhood is among its best features. But long gone, she said, are the days when she could feel safe leaving her house unlocked.

Montecito Heights has its share of burglaries and a few car thefts, “but it’s pretty well crime-free up there,” says Los Angeles Police Officer Bob Acosta, the senior officer in charge of the area. “We do get burglaries, but a lot of people can afford alarm systems, so that helps.”

However, gang activity is common and graffiti prevalent in a sliver of the neighborhood that extends into the densely populated flatland along Griffin Avenue.

Acosta attributes much of the neighborhood’s low crime rate to neighbors who stand vigil for one another and an active homeowners association with an aggressive anti-graffiti committee that paints over any markings within hours.

The homeowners association was started in the mid-’60s by resident Nate Clark, 85, and a handful of other neighbors to fight for the open space that is now the regional park. The retired electrical engineer and former national president of the Sierra Club, together with his neighbors, successfully warded off a freeway and a high-density housing project proposed for the land. And in 1968, the land was designated Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, after the only City Council member who supported the homeowners preservation crusade from beginning to end.

But the 306 acres of rolling hills are once again in jeopardy. The 25-year agreement struck by Clark and his neighbors expires in 1993 and right now the fate of the land is uncertain.

“What I’m afraid of is some aggressive developer getting a stupid legislator on his side and talking him into opening the door for builders,” said a feisty Clark, whose home is on a park-adjacent parcel he bought in 1939 for $300. “Then, instead of looking at beautiful mountains, we’ll be looking out on the tops of buildings and roads.”

While the ensuing battle is vital to the well-being of all the residents here, it’s especially important to the old-timers who plan to live out their years in Montecito Heights.

“I don’t think I can live in another place,” Espinoza said. “It’s nice and peaceful here. I’ll stay here until I die.”

At a Glance Population

1991 estimate: 4,350

1980-91 change: +6.8%

Median age: 30.2 years

Annual income

Per capita: 9,681

Median household: 28,257

Household distribution

Less than $15,000: 16.6%

$15,000 - $25,000: 26.4%

$25,000 - $40,000: 19.2%

$40,000 - $75,000: 29.5%

$75,000 + 8.3%