‘People Can Experience Living in Beach Community and Having Yard’ : Belmont Heights: The community doesn’t have all the noise and traffic of most beach cities, yet still has the recreational opportunities.

Some days, mere passersby will send Crazy Louie out into the yard, as protective as a junkyard dog. As an unofficial Neighborhood Watch participant in his quiet Belmont Heights community, Louie’s known to ruffle some feathers at the first hint of a disturbance.

After all, Louie is a goose.

“A watch goose,” said Georgia Nichol, explaining that her special companion is a German Emden prized for his lovely down feathers. Louie has found sanctuary in Nichol’s garden, with two other geese--Mattie, another Emden, and Nellie, a white Chinese. “There’s lots of room for them to run around,” Nichol said. “And they can make a lot of noise.”

Nichol, 63, and her husband, Robert, 65, came to California from Minnesota in the early 1960s, settling in the Long Beach neighborhood of Belmont Shore as Robert Nichol, an engineer, went to work on the Huntington Harbor project.

The couple spent their first year in a crowded duplex within view of the beach. Then, as the first of two sons was born, they traded their ocean view for breathing room.

Their first home in Belmont Heights was a two-bedroom bungalow built in the 1920s. The house they now occupy is a two-story Monterey style with a deck, three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths on a large lot. It was built after World War II, from an earthy pine imported from a seaside hospital back east.

The Nichols’ residence is typical of the custom-crafted homes of Belmont Heights. “I love this house,” Nichol said. “It has a soul.”

Belmont Heights, an area of roughly two square miles, is bounded on the north by Seventh Street, on the west by Redondo Avenue, on the east by Nieto Avenue and on the south by Livingston Drive. It is near Alamitos Bay, the Long Beach marinas, the Belmont Pier and the beaches.

Not far from the Nichols’ home, at the Ma’ N Pa Grocery on Roycroft, Ariel Durant is making stuffed mushrooms in the store’s small kitchen, which reeks of garlic and herbs. She spoons a pile of fragrant bread crumbs onto an old wooden chopping board, smashes them with a marble rolling pin, then folds the mixture by hand into a huge mixing bowl. Everything is handmade at the grocery, Durant said. The customers like it that way.

“What I like about Belmont Heights is that it’s finished,” said Durant, 58, who lives around the corner from the store, in the heart of Belmont Heights. “All the spaces are filled-in already. There can never be a mall or a gas station or a mini-mall.”

Although retired, Durant said she works at the grocery because she likes the sense of small-town community she feels there. She and her husband, Will, are not to be confused with the famous historian/philosopher couple of the same names, both of whom died in 1981. Ariel said she changed her name from Judy 18 years ago because of a deep reverence for the elder Ariel. That was before she married Will, though. Their match was predestined, Ariel Durant believes.

The Durants bought their current home, an 800-square-foot California bungalow, at a peak market price of $319,000. They have since invested another $200,000, adding a second story, for a total at 2,100 square feet and a five-car garage.

Lot sizes are larger in the Heights than they are in Belmont Shore--big lawns front stately mansions and earthy cottages; mature trees throw shade over yards big enough to play in. With so much room to grow, home additions are the norm. “The neighborhood is continually upgrading itself,” Durant said.

Belmont Heights is an extension of the grand mansions that began to line Ocean Avenue in the 1920s--great Spanish, Tudor and Gothic homes that reflected the wealth of the burgeoning port city. By the end of the decade, there was such a demand for these homes that builders began to plant them up the slopes into what became known as Belmont Heights.

Erik Bueno, a real estate agent at Century 21 Coastline, said the area has remained a mix of mostly single-family homes. Prices in the Heights today range from under $200,000 to more than $1 million. He said buyers anxious to live near the ocean but possessive of their space find Belmont Heights has the best of both worlds.

“People can experience living in a beach community and having a yard,” Bueno said. Residents are away from the congestion of the shore, he said, but the ocean is an easy stroll away. So is pedestrian shopping area along 2nd Street.

Prices for most Heights homes range from $250,000 to $500,000 for a 1920s 2,000-square-foot, three bedroom and 2 1/2-bath home, Bueno said. Recently, a small bungalow with about 640 square feet sold for $155,000. Starter homes like this one are an occasional find in the Heights, Bueno said.

At the other end of the spectrum is a 4,621-square-foot 1930 Spanish mansion purchased by Cal State Long Beach for over $1 million.

A hallmark of the Belmont Heights community seems to be stability.

“People stay here,” Bueno said. “They’ll ride their bike to elementary school, they’ll ride their bike to junior high school, they’ll ride their bike to high school and they’ll ride their bike to college.”

New resident Laurie Barry agreed. “It’s not as transient as the beach. People stay here,” she said. Barry and her husband, Patrick, both grew up in the shore. They bought their 72-year-old, two-story brick “Spanglish” home on Vista Street in 1976 for about $70,000. A mix of English and Spanish styles, the house has two bedrooms, two baths and a den.

Laurie Barry, a substitute teacher in the Long Beach Unified School District, says she, her husband and their two children opted for the Heights because they wanted to get away from the noise and traffic, but still have the recreational opportunities the beaches offered.

“That’s one of the things we’ve stayed here for,” Barry said. “We have a boat, and we bike and walk. We can always hop on a bike instead of having to throw it in the car.”

Ron and Jamie Leaf bought their first home in Belmont Heights 4 1/2 years ago--a 1,500-square-foot, one-story 1927 bungalow for $405,000.

Ron Leaf, 40, a psychologist, and Jamie, 37, a psychotherapist, recently moved up to their second home--a 4,800-square-foot, 1948 Tudor-style home with four large bedrooms, three baths and a pool. Originally priced at $1.2 million, the home sold for $680,000, on a double lot of 100-by-120-feet.

The Leafs keep a sailboat in Alamitos Bay. Their kids, ages 10 and 13, walk to the beach. And recently, the couple has begun to discover the downtown area--one of Long Beach’s neighborhoods that Ron admits they had so far avoided because of his perception that it was crime-ridden and culturally empty. He says that perception has changed.

“We’re excited about downtown--in fact we only discovered it a few weeks ago,” he said. “It’s incredibly active, with good restaurants, jazz clubs, shops along Pine Avenue. Second Street (in Belmont Shore) offers a little different atmosphere--more beachy and younger.”

Safety is another positive aspect of the area. Said Karen Kerr, public information officer for the Long Beach Police Department: “Many of the residents of Belmont Heights feel a strong sense of community . . . and they have a tendency to become more involved.”

Sometimes Ariel Durant encounters an errant roller-blader from the shore zipping along Vista Street in a raucous Spandex ensemble. She finds it an amusing component of living in a beach town, though her street is so peaceful she sometimes forgets the shore is nearby.

“The other morning I stood on my corner and I could hear the parrots next door, and the parrots in the trees, and the piano teacher was giving a lesson, and the doves were cooing,” she said. “It was the most beautiful thing in the world.”

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Belmont Heights Home Sale Data Sample Size (for 10-year period): 1,033 Ave. home size (square feet): 1,440 Ave. Year Built: 1927 Ave. No. Bedrms: 2.52 Ave. No. Baths: 1.48 Pool: 4% View homes: 4% Central air: 2% Waterfront: 3% Floodzone: 51% Price Range (1993-94): $97,000-645,000 Predominant Value: $237,000 Age Range: 7-90 years Predominant Age: 71 years ****

Average Sales Data

Year Total $ per Median Sales sq. ft. price 1994* 64 $170.26 $220,312 1993 46 $192.86 $256,630 1992 68 $207.36 $293,789 1991 77 $215.22 $305,363 1990 53 $235.73 $328,962 1989 85 $236.80 $343,588 1988 140 $198.86 $274,125 1987 148 $163.75 $227,993 1986 175 $139.95 $180,194 1985 177 $127.08 $152,992

* 1994 data current through October.

Source: TRW Redi Property Data, Riverside

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At a Glance

Population 1994 estimate: 13,041 1990-94 change: +0.4% *

Annual income Per capita: 33,052 Median household: 46,482 *

Household distribution Less than $30,000: 11.1% $30,000-$60,000: 30.1% $60,000-$100,000: 34.3% $100,000-$150,000: 15.1% $150,000 +: 7.5%