Convenient, Quiet Village in the Hills : West Covina community of Woodside Village offers shopping, has low crime in tranquil San Jose Hills

When Linda and Earl Thompson moved to the West Covina community of Woodside Village in 1980, they were often lulled to sleep by mooing cows in nearby fields. The cows have been replaced by houses, but the Thompsons still find their home peaceful and country-like.

“Friends sometime visit and are astonished that Woodside Village is so quiet,” Earl Thompson, 57, said. “The tranquillity is one of the nicest things about the area,” Linda Thompson, 42, added.

The Thompsons, both lawyers, paid $92,500 for their 1,500-square-foot, four-bedroom home in 1980, and have watched the area become increasingly cosmopolitan, with a rich ethnic mix. “The newcomers in the neighborhood are from several Asian countries,” Earl Thompson said. “And they brought markets and restaurants offering interesting and exotic foods.”

Woodside Village is located on the undulating southern ridges of the San Jose Hills. The land had been mainly used for grazing at a time when the central sections of West Covina straddling the San Bernardino (10) Freeway went through explosive growth in the 1950s and ‘60s.

In 1969, the city of West Covina adopted a master plan for the entire 1,123-acre site on its southern boundary, and residential development for the new community of Woodside Village began shortly thereafter. Bounded by the BKK landfill on the north, Nogales Street and the city of Walnut on the east, Azusa Avenue on the west, and unincorporated sections of Los Angeles County on the south, Woodside Village is a self-contained community with parks, schools, homes, apartments and businesses.

Recent figures show the median listing price for a home in Woodside Village to be $190,000 with a median selling price of $175,000, according to realtor “Sugar Ray” Parayno of Parayno Properties Inc.

Modest two-bedroom, one-bath condos in Woodside Village begin at $100,000. Single-family homes start at $155,000 and go to $260,000.

Roslynn Lee moved to Woodside Village in June, 1994, after the condo she rented in Inglewood was sold. “I got a great deal on my townhouse,” Lee, 54, said. “It was only $109,000 for a very spacious 1,100 square feet--two bedrooms, two baths, a formal dining room and a fireplace. The minute I walked into this space, I loved it.”

Lee, an administrative assistant at Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall, a planning and engineering firm, uses rapid transit to commute to her mid-Wilshire office. “I travel a longer distance than before, but it’s not so bad since I don’t drive,” Lee said. “My employer is an advocate of transit and subsidizes bus passes. And auto insurance is cheaper when you don’t drive to work.”

The shopping opportunities surrounding Woodside Village were a definite draw when Lee was looking for a place to live. “I’m 15 minutes away from four shopping centers,” she said. “And even though the stores are the same ones I’m used to shopping in, it seems to me the merchandise here is better quality.”

A low crime rate is another reason homeowners are attracted to the community, according to Richard Melendez, 40, a training officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. He and his wife, Ellen, 40, a teacher’s aide at Christ Lutheran Church and School, originally moved to Woodside Village to be near family members.

The Melendezes paid $72,000 for their three-bedroom, two-bath house in 1980. They decided West Covina was a good place to stay when they began their own family, which now includes Dillon, 6, and Hailey, 3.

“Woodside Village is really convenient,” Ellen Melendez said. “We have one shopping plaza off the San Bernardino Freeway and another off the Pomona Freeway.”

Richard Melendez appreciates the diversity of the community. “We have a good mix of Asian, black, Latino and Anglo homeowners and few problems,” he said. “Several Korean, Vietnamese and Philippine families who have moved here in the past few years have brought their businesses to Westside Village, which has really added to the community.”

West Covina Planning Director Jeff Collier, noting the popularity of Woodside Village with Asian residents, said the changing demographics have challenged the city.

“Some census tracts in Woodside are 33% Asian,” he said, compared to an average of 17% elsewhere in the city. “We try to make certain our newer citizens do not feel isolated by looking carefully at the way we deliver police and governmental services.”

As president of the 250-member Woodside Village Homeowners’ Assn., Melendez must deal with neighborhood complaints. “The major dissatisfaction residents have is with local schools. Parents are not happy with the comparatively low test scores in the district,” Melendez said. “Unfortunately, they don’t feel able to do much to improve the schools, such as cut class sizes.”

The superintendent of the Rowland Unified School District, Ron Leon, said that test scores for the children from Woodside Village are at or above the national average.

Leon said that class sizes in schools throughout Los Angeles County are too high, but added, “Rowland has the best class size available with funding provided by the state of California.

“We invite prospective homeowners to visit our schools,” he said. “We think they will be pleased with the educational programs we have to offer.”

Alma and Clyde Fujiwara gravitated to West Covina because they felt they got more for their housing dollar in Woodside Village than in areas closer to downtown. In 1977 the Fujiwaras paid $60,000 for a 1,700-square-foot, four-bedroom home that they have since remodeled to 2,000 square feet.

“Our son, Marc, 18, was born right before we moved. When I returned to work there were times my job took me all over the basin and I was driving three hours a day,” Alma Fujiwara said. “It wasn’t long before I found a job closer to home.” Fujiwara now works in West Covina’s planning department. Clyde Fujiwara is a senior land maintenance supervisor for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “The commute took 30 minutes when we first moved here,” Clyde said. “Now it’s closer to an hour, even though I leave before 6 a.m.”

For Alma Fujiwara, one of the best things about living in Woodside Village is the proximity to several colleges. “I take classes at Cal Poly Pomona, which is only 10 minutes away. And Marc attends nearby Mt. San Antonio Junior College.”

Moving to Woodside Village means a long commute for Gerald and Maria Apusen, who recently closed escrow on their first home. They paid $172,500 for a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,560-square-foot house. Maria, 30, works as an accounting clerk for the Los Angeles Police Department while Gerald, 29, is a postal worker in Sun Valley.

The Apusens lived in Glendale while searching for a house between Burbank and the San Fernando Valley. “Then a co-worker told me how reasonable home prices were in West Covina,” Maria said. “When we began to get serious about settling here, I interviewed three people in Woodside Village. Everybody agreed it was a quiet, nice neighborhood. So we decided we could put up with the long drives we would be making.”

One day Gerald Apusen looked at a house he was certain would be perfect for the family. Afraid that the house would be sold to someone else, he made a purchase offer before Maria could tour the inside. “But when we drove by I could tell I would like it,” she said, “The yard had plenty of space for fruit trees and a vegetable garden. Also we’re right behind a park. Still, it was strange to see the interior of the house for the first time during the final walk-through.”

The Apusens, who are originally from the Philippines, also liked the fact that West Covina has a sizable Philippine community.

Because Woodside Village was planned as an entire community, park and recreational facilities were in place from the first development. Although the typical yard of single-family homes is smaller that the West Covina average, public paths wind through many residential areas and open space is abundant.

“I would have to own 20 acres of land to have the open space that I have close to my house,” Earl Thompson said. “Our dog Bonnie loves to take walks with me on the pathway and play with all the local kids.”

The location of the 583-acre BKK landfill along the northern boundary of Woodside Village has caused homeowners over the years to complain about hazardous waste standards, dump truck traffic and the noise of landfill operations.

In 1984 a methane gas leak led BKK to shut down the section of the landfill operation that accepted hazardous waste.

“Problems with toxic waste forced BKK to become one of the showcases of landfill operations,” Parayno said. “Most people who come to the area for the first time don’t even know it’s here.”

A current issue is the date for closing the landfill. In 1985 the city of West Covina and BKK officials signed a memorandum of understanding regarding a closure date. The city claims BKK agreed to shut down in 1995. BKK claims West Covina has refused to allow the development on landfill acreage that would pay for closing the dump.

The issue is now in the courts.

An informal group of homeowners call RACOONS (Residents Against Contamination of our Neighborhood) claims the dump closure date was the deciding factor in West Covina’s 1994 City Council election results. Candidates who took strong positions to close the landfill in 1995 easily won election, said Don Carmen, a spokesman for RACOONS.

“The Woodside Village Homeowner’s Assn. would prefer to see the dump closed and the land developed,” said Richard Melendez. “The one thing we absolutely don’t want to happen is for BKK to close the landfill and walk away from clean-up problems. That would seriously alter the quality of life in West Covina and especially in our community.”

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Woodside Village Home Sale Data

Sample Size (for 10-year period): 2,695

Ave. home size (square feet): 1,500

Ave. Year Built: 1972

Ave. No. Bedrms: 3.32

Ave. No. Baths: 2.10

Pool: 10%

View homes: 7%

Central air: 49%

Floodzone: 49%

Price Range (1993-94): $62,500-297,000

Predominant Value: $166,000

Age Range: 7-81 years

Predominant Age: 25 years

Average Sales Data

Year Total Sales $ per sq. ft. Median price 1995* 52 $106.54 $163,384 1994 204 $111.25 $173,279 1993 115 $119.95 $183,795 1992 176 $128.66 $189,474 1991 246 $134.70 $196,823 1990 237 $142.34 $197,772 1989 365 $134.73 $195,964 1988 477 $106.10 $155,695 1987 466 $84.70 $131,944 1986 357 $76.71 $116,047

*1995 data current through April.

Source: TRW Redi Property Data, Riverside