After Work in the City, They Head for the Hills : Community: Residents, many of them commuters to the Valley or L.A., find quiet refuge in their Simi Valley subdivision.

By SARA CATANIA

March 6, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Growing up on a cattle ranch in eastern Simi Valley, Kathleen Flanagan remembers hunting for arrowheads in old Chumash Indian caves as her father rode horseback through the sage-covered hills.

Today a gnarly oak tree and a curving road called Flanagan Drive are all that remain of the old family ranch.

In its place sits a development of wood, stucco and tile houses called Indian Hills. Where cattle once roamed, modern, two-story houses dot treelined streets with names like Geronimo Avenue, Sitting Bull Place and Crazy Horse Drive.

“It doesn’t look anything like it did when I lived there, but I think they’ve done a good job,” said Flanagan, whose family sold its ranch and moved to central Simi Valley after her father died in 1954.

More than 20 years later, the 617-acre Indian Hills neighborhood was born.

Tucked in the northeast corner of the city, Indian Hills is bordered on the south by the Simi Valley Freeway, and on the west by Stearns Street and the Simi Hills Golf Course.

The upscale neighborhood of 574 houses caters to white-collar commuters seeking refuge from the crime and crowds of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Nearly half of Indian Hills’ working residents drive more than 30 minutes each way to get to their jobs, according to the 1990 U.S. census.

“It’s worth the drive,” said Tom McCarthy, who commutes to Beverly Hills, where he works as a vice president of a property management company. “The air is cleaner and the kids have plenty of open space to roam around.”

The planned addition of 235 houses along Yosemite Avenue in the next decade may increase traffic and block some homeowners’ views, but residents said they are confident that the area’s tranquil atmosphere will remain intact.

Although bounded by the 18-hole golf course and a bustling fast-food restaurant, residents say the neighborhood has retained the qualities that first drew the Flanagans to the site: stunning views and peace and quiet.

Beverly Troop, a realtor who lives with her husband in a four-bedroom, three-bath house at the east end of the development, said Indian Hills is the kind of place where residents keep tabs on anniversaries, promotions and graduations through a neighborhood newsletter. They block off streets for neighborhood barbecues and plan outdoor dinners to enjoy spectacular sunsets.

Views throughout the development are unmarred by power and telephone lines, which are underground.

Blue herons, snowy egrets and red-toed hawks soar over the neighborhood, while chirping frogs fill a creek near the golf course.

When an old windmill perched above the neighborhood was destroyed during a storm, neighbors pitched in and bought another one to replace it.

Troop said she and her neighbors have fought to preserve the natural state of Chumash Park, an undeveloped 52-acre stretch of hilly land at the neighborhood’s eastern end. Residents from throughout Simi Valley frequent the park’s Chumash Indian caves and its hiking trails leading into the Santa Susana Mountains.

“People who live here place a high value on the peace and beauty of the area,” Troop said. “We are all devoted to keeping it that way.”

Some residents have gone even further to preserve the rural character of Indian Hills.

A neighborhood group called Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley has, at various times, fought against development of a shooting range, Shell gas station and McDonald’s restaurant in the neighborhood.

Citing noise and safety concerns, the group, led by then-President Eileen Gordon, was able to defeat plans for a city-run outdoor shooting range nearby.

They were unsuccessful in halting construction of the McDonald’s, which was built at the east entrance to the neighborhood at Yosemite Avenue. They also failed to stop development of the Shell gas station, carwash and mini-mart planned for construction later this year next to the McDonald’s.

However, by attending every Planning Commission meeting and every public hearing on the matter, the group was able to force many changes in the gas station project, including installation of a stop light at the corner of Yosemite Avenue and the Simi Valley Freeway and construction of a sound wall between the development and the neighboring homes.

“We were really satisfied with how things turned out,” Gordon said. The group has now expanded and is tackling citywide safety and development issues.

Despite the commercial development, a sense of separation from the rest of the city pervades the entire Indian Hills neighborhood, with each tract offering large, single-family houses with spacious yards on quiet cul-de-sacs.

At the neighborhood’s eastern edge lies Indian Hills Ridge, its four-bedroom houses built with vaulted ceilings, sky lights and swimming pools. Houses lining Flanagan Drive take in sweeping views of the hills, the city and the old Chumash trails.

To the west of the ridge, Indian Hills Ranch, home to Simi Councilman Bill Davis and Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard, curls around the Simi Hills Golf Course. Perched above the course are the exclusive, widely spaced houses of Indian Hills Estates.

B. Michael Smith said he often comes home from his job as an insurance agent in downtown Los Angeles to find golf balls in his back yard.

“Sometimes I feel like I should wear a helmet, just in case,” Smith said.

Below it all, in the shadow of four million-gallon water tanks, Indian Hills Meadows stretches from Alamo Street to the Simi Valley Freeway and from Stearns Street to Yosemite Avenue.

Pipelines to three of the tanks burst during the earthquake, crushing a ridge and sending a mud slick oozing down the hillside into several houses.

No houses in Indian Hills were destroyed in the quake, but eight received yellow tags from city inspectors, meaning extensive repairs are required.

Sharon Hamilton, the volunteer program coordinator for the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, lost three chimneys in her house in the Meadows. “We have quite a bit of damage, but it’s repairable,” Hamilton said. “I’m just grateful that it wasn’t worse and for all the support we got from our neighbors.”

Residents throughout Indian Hills pride themselves on their sense of community.

“It’s kind of like growing up in the ‘50s,” said Eileen Vrbanac who lives in Indian Hills Meadows with her husband and their two sons. “People know each other and look out for each other.”

The predominantly white community of about 2,400 mirrors the city in its ethnic uniformity, with minorities accounting for less than 25% of the population.

About 40% of adult Indian Hills residents have graduated from college, compared to 28% of Simi Valley’s total adult population.

The median family income stands at $59,123, about 4% higher than the citywide figure.

Vrbanac, a 12-year Simi Valley resident, said she and her husband consider their move to Indian Hills eight months ago a step up from their former central Simi Valley neighborhood.

“For us, it was a move up,” said Vrbanac, who works as a nurse in the San Fernando Valley. “It feels safer and friendlier.”

Vrbanac said she and her husband considered other neighborhoods, but decided on Indian Hills because of its location and the price they were able to get for their 2,500-square-foot house.

“We thought about Wood Ranch, but it’s clear on the other end of town,” Vrbanac said. “I didn’t want to add that much time to my commute.

The couple were also able to buy their house for $294,000, down from a 1991 asking price of $360,000 for a similar house on the same street.

Realtors said the vacancy rate in Indian Hills is extremely low.

“After the earthquake, a lot of people took their homes off the market to make repairs,” realtor Karen Lindeen said. “There was very little available before and now there’s even less.”

Houses in the hillier parts of the neighborhood are more expensive. Troop, who has sold 20 houses in the Indian Hills Ridge tract, said she just closed escrow on a house with a swimming pool, spa and view for $335,000. A 3,100-square-foot house in the Indian Hills Estates tract runs as high as $400,000.

“These are special homes,” Troop said. “For what you get, it’s a very good value.”

Indian Hills at a Glance

Population: 2,442

Median family income: $59,123

Education

Less than ninth grade: 1.9%

Some high school: 7.2%

High school diploma: 90.8%

Associate degree: 10.6%

Bachelor’s degree: 28.6%

Graduate degree: 7.3%

Occupation