Renewal Sparks City With a Vantage Point : Signal Hill: Redevelopment plan is paying off for city that has view of Long Beach Harbor and beyond.

When Neena Strichart hears children playing in her Signal Hill neighborhood, the sounds bring back pleasant memories. Often the kids are those of a neighbor and friend from the days when the two of them were growing up in that same neighborhood.

“My parents bought this house (in 1965), when I was 10 years old,” Strichart said, “and I bought it from my mother in the late 1980s.” Strichart paid $160,000 for the 1928 two-bedroom Spanish-style stucco with a small guest house. Her mother, Marjorie Gromme, had bought a condo about five blocks away.

“This is a happy neighborhood,” she said. “My husband, Steve, and I plan to stay here always. If we ever move, it will be to the top of the hill to a condominium when we are ready to retire.”

Signal Hill, with 8,800 residents in 2 1/2 square miles, is an incorporated city that is completely surrounded by the city of Long Beach. The western border is Atlantic Avenue, the southern borders are Redondo and Temple, and Spring and Wardlow form the northern border. Long Beach Municipal Airport adjoins the northeast tip of Signal Hill, and the San Diego (405) Freeway offers three exits to Signal Hill as it runs through the northern edge of the city.

When people talk about moving to the top of the 365-foot-high dome for which Signal Hill is named, they often are seeking a view of the Long Beach Harbor, the Queen Mary and Catalina Island. Hundreds of years ago, this high piece of ground provided a vantage point for Indians to send smoke signals to other tribes in the coastal basin, Catalina Island and the San Pedro peninsula.

By the late 1700s, the territory that included Signal Hill was colonized as Alta California and was ruled by King Carlos III of Spain. In the early 1800s, six ranchos were created, each with access to the hill, again affording an advantage point.

During the mid-1800s, two immigrants from New England, Abel Stearns and Jonathan Temple, known as the Yankee Dons, each bought a rancho that included portions of Signal Hill. That same hill became a festive gathering place for an annual spring horse race that was a rivalry between Stearns and Temple.

A terrible drought in the mid-1880s wiped out what had been successful cattle operations. In 1866 the Stearns and Temple ranchos, Los Alamitos and Los Cerritos, with the dome right in the middle, were bought by Flint, Bixby and Co., a partnership of three cousins from Maine. Members of the Bixby family continue to own property in the area and have maintained a presence in Signal Hill. Alamitos Land Co., owned by the Bixby family, plans to build single-family homes on the hill’s southeast slope.

Modern-day Signal Hill was created by an oil boom that began in June, 1921, when Alamitos No. 1 blew a gusher that changed the destiny of the hilltop. By February, 1922, there were 400 rigs at work. In 1924, the oil producers incorporated the city to avoid a barrel tax proposed by the city of Long Beach.

In the 1930s, Signal Hill and its oil industry dealt with the Great Depression, and, in the 1940s, World War II, when oil production soared and the city thrived.

In the 1950s and ‘60’s oil operations were scaled back. And from the mid-1970s to today, Signal Hill has experienced change, headlines and growth.

A formal redevelopment plan was adopted by the City Council in 1974 that called initially for improving the city’s infrastructure as well as park and common area upgrades. In 1982 the redevelopment focused on economic growth and a balanced, business-friendly community.

This was also a period when Signal Hill was in the headlines. In 1981, Ron Settles, a Long Beach City College football star, was arrested for speeding in Signal Hill. Police said Settles wielded a 9-inch butcher knife at three officers and refused to hand over his driver’s license. A small quantity of cocaine was found in the car he was driving.

Within 90 minutes of being placed in a cell, he was found hanging from a cell bar with mattress cover tied around his neck. There were accusations that he had been beaten. No police officers were charged in the case, however, and a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Settles family was settled out of court.

The city’s redevelopment policy began to pay off in the mid-1980s, with major retailers coming to town, including Office Depot, Price Club, Home Depot, PetsMart, Auto Parts Club and soon a Toys-R-Us. There is a six-dealership auto center on Cherry Avenue. Today, oil revenues account for less than $180,000 of the city’s $10 million annual operating budget.

Peggy McClanahan has been in Signal Hill long enough to have witnessed much of the recent history unfold.

Her parents, with her and her two sisters, moved into a small rental in 1922. Three years later, her father bought the house for $3,950. McClanahan and her husband, Roland, bought the house from her parents in 1938 for $4,250 and raised their son Jack, there. A widow now, McClanahan still lives there and works part time for Signal Hill Office Supply.

McClanahan recalls the oil derricks that once dominated the hill. “I liked them. It kind of fit into the name Signal Hill,” she said. “I also remember the nice Japanese gardens on the east side of the hill before (World War II). We used to go up to get our vegetables. I’ve seen the town go from the oil fields to business.”

Signal Hill has also developed as a town with more condos and townhouses than single-family homes. In the Multiple Listing Service, according to realtor Valerie Condon of ReMax Real Estate Specialists, there are 73 condo units available, priced from $99,000 for a two-bedroom, 1 3/4-bath unit to $239,000 for a three-bedroom and three-bath unit, while only 17 houses are listing, with prices from $99,900 for three bedrooms and one bath to $360,000 for a five-bedrooms, 3 1/2- bath house with a view.

“During the 1980s, they overbuilt the area with condos and townhouses,” she said.

She said that many of the units take advantage of the spectacular view. “This has the potential some day to be like a Rolling Hills Estates, or a Palos Verdes. The views are incredible.”

Besides the resale homes offered and the Alamitos Land Co. project of 280 single and multifamily units, Coscan-Davidson Homes will soon begin construction of two 21-unit buildings. The company holds development rights to the 525-unit Hilltop Specific Plan.

When Martha Jennifer Sadler began looking for a mobile home to buy, her realtor, Valerie Condon, suggested she would be better off to look at a condo, and they began looking in Signal Hill.

She found a two-bedroom unit with a fireplace that she liked and bought it for $113,500, moving in in October, 1993. Her unit has a view of the Queen Mary from the patio off the master bedroom. The complex has about 80 units, and a pool, Jacuzzi and weight room.

“It’s beautiful here,” she said. “I have everything I wanted and needed for the rest of my life. . . . I’m a native of Long Beach, and living in Signal Hill lets me be close to my job at McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, but away from Long Beach.”

Sadler said that she is particularly impressed with the Signal Hill Police Department, and how safe she feels in the city.

Brenda Meicht and her husband, Mike, and son Marc are also new homeowners in Signal Hill and quite happy with their recently purchased townhouse.

“We had lived in Signal Hill for 14 years as renters. We wanted to buy here because it’s such a nice community--a city within a city--very safe with a little country look to it, “ said Brenda Meicht.

“When I walked into this townhouse I fell in love immediately but thought it was out of our category. We put in a bid--it was a repossession--and we bought in the mid-$150,000 range. It was in good shape, with white Berber carpet, a wet bar, a beautiful fireplace. It is a trilevel. The living room is spacious, and we have a beautiful balcony and two private patios. It is a beautiful building with a lovely entrance--kind of has a Fifth Avenue look.”

Meicht said that they could have purchased a home with a view, but the one they settled on appealed to her far beyond what a view offered. “We have two huge bedrooms, three full baths and about 1,800 square feet,” she said.

They also are particularly impressed with the safety of the neighborhood and the quick response time of the police department, Meicht said.

Mary Risings, an investigator and public information officer with the 30-officer department, said that the problems they deal with are much like those of other cities.

“We see some domestic violence, some traffic accidents,” she said. “We have a graffiti program. As soon as it is found in the city, it is cleaned up. We keep a good handle on it.”

At a Glance

Population

1994 estimate: 9,246

1990-94 change: +10.5%

Annual income

Per capita: 21,527

Median household: 40,705

Household distribution

Less than $30,000: 28.9%

$30,000 - $60,000: 31.1%

$60,000 - $100,000: 26.1%

$100,000 - $150,000: 7.8%

$150,000 + 4.6%

Signal Hill Home Sale Data

Sample Size 913 (for 10-year period) Ave. home size 1,031 (square feet) Ave. Year Built 1931 Ave. No. Bedrms 2.18 Ave. No. Baths 1.21 Pool 5% View homes 3% Central air 3% Floodzone 49% Price Range $52,000-290,000 (1993-94) Predominant Value $113,000 Age Range 6-93 years Predominant Age 69 years

Average Sales Data

Year Total $ per Median Sales sq. ft. price 1994* 29 $93.76 $118,702 1993 46 $125.94 $116,565 1992 51 $127.83 $127,843 1991 52 $130.75 $132,894 1990 97 $132.16 $129,103 1989 126 $132.80 $129,142 1988 118 $111.13 $111,754 1987 141 $93.46 $93,648 1986 129 $83.54 $85,584 1985 124 $77.81 $76,294

*1994 data current through June.

Source: TRW Redi Property Data, Riverside