Not NoHo : Households Declare Independence, Form West Toluca Lake

In the shadow of eccentric Toluca Lake, one of the San Fernando Valley’s smallest communities, has sprouted an even tinier one.

It’s a residential triangle of about 100 homes. Its largest employer is the local 7-Eleven. Its major artery is a tree-lined street barely wide enough for two cars.

But after two years of bureaucratic wrangling, a bunch of homeowners frustrated with being part of North Hollywood can finally call it their own. And what they call it is West Toluca Lake.

Jonathan Winters and Bob Hope, sometime residents of the original Toluca Lake, would probably have a field day with the upstarts to the west. But their new neighbors are proud of their successful mini-secession effort--one of several throughout the San Fernando Valley by neighborhoods unhappy with being yoked to what they regarded as less-than-desirable communities.

Shone Kirkpatrick, who spearheaded the breakaway effort, acknowledged that concerns about crime and property values played a role in the decision to pull out, but said the overriding factor was simply a wish for independence.

“We felt sort of isolated from North Hollywood,” said Kirkpatrick, a screenwriter and president of the West Toluca Lake Homeowners Assn., which numbers 83 households. “The idea was that a smaller entity gives better representation to its people.”

Kirkpatrick’s campaign began in 1994 and culminated last month, when the city of Los Angeles put up its standard blue-and-white street signs in the community bearing the name “West Toluca Lake.” (Rejected by residents: “Toluca Village,” “Toluca Lake West,” even “SoNoHo.”) The neighborhood has its own postal address now as well, Kirkpatrick said.

But don’t ask the post office about it.

“What’s this about? Everybody’s been calling wanting to know if they’re part of this new thing,” muttered a postal worker at the North Hollywood station. “Ask the postmaster. I bet he doesn’t even know.”

Stacia Crane, manager of community affairs for the Van Nuys district of the U.S. Postal Service, wasn’t aware of the change. She typed Kirkpatrick’s address into her computer. It came back North Hollywood.

“Nobody has told us about it,” she said. “Anytime you do anything like this, you have to involve us.”

Organizers of the liberation movement know it may take some time for word to spread. They do live in an out-of-the-way spot, they say, but that’s the point.

“We went to Studio City and Toluca Lake and they didn’t want us,” Kirkpatrick said of earlier efforts to annex themselves to established communities. “So we made a great little hidden sort of neighborhood.”

Myran Cotton, a field deputy in City Councilman John Ferraro’s office, worked with residents on getting recognized as an official community.

“It doesn’t mean a whole lot of anything,” Cotton said, pointing out that West Toluca Lake is still under city jurisdiction and has the same ZIP code as before. “But I’m proud of them. They really showed that the residents were behind it. When people are involved in their community, it’s always a positive.”

Toluca Lake residents, however, aren’t completely enthused. Their tradition-rich community has been called “a poor man’s Beverly Hills” for its blend of down-to-Earth character and expensive homes owned by celebrities.

Don Page, a columnist for the weekly newspaper The Tolucan, included a wry mention of the new community in this week’s edition.

“While we snobs are . . . smoking five-dollar cigars and sipping champagne, they’re in $400-a-month apartments having a Bud, smoking Camels and listening to the Grateful Dead,” he wrote.

Kirkpatrick plans a reply.

“I’m going to invite him over for a beer and a smoke,” he joked.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Changing Names

When some recently formed communities got their names:

West Hills, 1987: Formed from western part of Canoga Park.

North Hills, 1991: Formed from all of Sepulveda and south Granada Hills.

Valley Village, 1991: Formed from a small chunk of North Hollywood.

La Tuna Canyon, 1995: Was a part of Sun Valley.

West Toluca Lake, 1996: Formed from southwestern corner of North Hollywood.