Life on the Fringe Can Bring Privacy, but Also Confusion

Some people like living on the edge--the edge of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Set amid boulders, jagged hillsides and winding roads are the communities of Box Canyon, Chatsworth Lake and Santa Susana Heights. These residential enclaves straddle the L. A./Ventura County border just south of the Simi Valley Freeway and north of Lake Manor Drive in Chatsworth.

The several hundred residents that live along the border don’t welcome outsiders, for the most part. Almost all of the streets are private, and many of the driveways have ominous signs with warnings such as: “No Trespassing,” “Stop,” “Keep Out” and “Private”--often followed by exclamation points.

Living in these neighborhoods is a lot like living in Topanga or Laurel canyons--except with less traffic and lower prices. The other major difference is some of the confusion that is sometimes generated because there are three distinct governmental entities that intersect with each other: the city of Los Angeles and the counties of Los Angeles and Ventura.

Real estate agent Robert L. Wood lives on Leota Lane in Box Canyon. His home is officially in Ventura County, his UPS packages are addressed to Chatsworth and his mail is addressed to Canoga Park, which in adjacent L. A. County has been re-designated West Hills.

It all can get a bit confusing, especially when residents try to get the various jurisdictions to cooperate with each other.

“Basically, this area is the stepchild of all the municipalities. We have no voice,” complained Wood, who is an agent with Todd C. Olson Real Estate Brokerage Inc. in Northridge. “We’re fractionalized, and it’s really hard to get any decisions made.”

It isn’t just the jurisdictions that are fractionalized. “The area has an eclectic mixture of independent people,” Wood said. “Most people don’t want to be part of the political system. They want to be left alone.”

Prospective buyers who are looking in the area don’t care all that much whether they’re buying in L. A. or Ventura County, Wood said. Property taxes are pretty much the same in both counties and so is police and fire protection. The local schools serving both sides of the county line are also considered some of the best in Southern California.

The big difference between the two counties has to do with the more significant number of new homes being offered for sale in the L. A. County sector of the area.

“Ventura and Los Angeles County building requirements are as different as Kansas and Connecticut,” Wood said.

In L. A. County, he explained, developers can build a 2,000-square-foot home on a mere 3,500-square-foot lot. Ventura County requires that a comparable new home be built on a 10,000-square-foot lot. And, while Ventura County requires septic tanks that can add up to $30,000 to the cost of a new home, L. A. County only requires septic tanks costing about $5,000.

Finally, Wood said, a home that takes six months to build in L. A. County takes almost a year to build just across the county line. The result of all this, he said, is that “there are very few builders on the Ventura County side of this area, and several of them have gone bankrupt.”

Most homes for sale in the Chatsworth Lake area, on the L. A. County side, are newer and priced between about $200,000 and $250,000. Prices for similar homes in Topanga Canyon are about double, Wood said.

Eva Reddington is a realtor who has been working thA. County side of the border for about 22 years. Prices have come down about 15% within the past two years, she said, but the erosion of property values hasn’t been as serious as in most other parts of the San Fernando Valley.

Reddington has a speculatively constructed three-bedroom house listed with Estate Properties in Woodland Hills. This contemporary house on Ehlers Drive in Chatsworth Lake is typical of some of the other newer homes in the area, with about 2,000 square feet of living space but very little in the way of a yard. It’s also built into a hillside and sits in front of a windy private road. “This is not a typical new home tract. There’s more of a country feel,” she said. The house is priced at $282,500. Other smaller and older homes in the area have sold for as little as $120,000.

The difference in price between Reddington’s new home listing and some of the older homes underlines the fact that Box Canyon and Chatsworth Lake are in something of a transition. The area has long been an outpost of ramshackle homes and cars that collect layers of dust in the back yard. In recent years, however, many property owners have sold off their land to make way for newer and more luxurious homes.

What all the residents still have in common though is that they very jealously guard their privacy.

“They come here to get away from people,” Reddington said. “They don’t want their neighbors coming over and borrowing sugar.”

Howard E. Shirley and his wife are longtime residents of Box Canyon, and they’ve seen lots of change over the years. The Shirleys’ 11 acres served as a mountain cabin retreat for his family as far back as 1927. The Shirleys live 400 yards into Ventura County and know that they don’t have much control over all the building that has been going on just across the border.

“We don’t have much political clout, but that doesn’t make much of a difference,” Shirley said. He remembers the days when Box Canyon was popular as a natural box-like setting to contain cattle. He now likes the mix of newer homes and shacks that stand amid the rocks of his canyon. And Shirley enjoys living among the cougars, goats and raccoons, and the coyotes who howl and pierce the quiet of the night.

Shirley--himself a retired developer--is somewhat philosophical about the changes that have come about in his border community. “There are people who object to all the construction,” he said. “But I don’t mind.”