Van Nuys Residents Hope to Call Lake Balboa Home

Arguing that they want to create an identity that is not associated with crime, a group of residents is organizing to change the name of their area of Van Nuys to Lake Balboa. But so far, the city has not supported their efforts.

“We’re embarrassed to say we live here,” said Steve Neuman, a Realtor who is leading the drive to change the area’s name. Instead, he noted, residents “say we live across the street from Encino.

“We should be allowed to change our name. If Van Nuys had such a great name, then why would we want to change?”

Going door to door, Neuman said he has collected 700 signatures in support of change. The residents want to rename a 3,000-home area between Victory Boulevard and Sherman Way on the south and north ends, and between White Oak and Woodley avenues on the west and east, he said.

The west Van Nuys neighborhood does not actually include Lake Balboa, which is in Encino.

Neuman, 32, said the change is not an attempt to increase property values: “It has to do with removing the negativity Van Nuys holds over our heads and creating an identity for our community.”

But Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose district includes the residents’ portion of Van Nuys, said she will not support the change. In a letter, Chick said name changes lead to divisiveness and don’t solve problems.

“People are searching for quick answers. I’m looking for real solutions,” Chick said.

Name changes are nothing new to the Valley in general or Van Nuys in particular. A section of Canoga Park was renamed West Hills, and the entire community known as Sepulveda was renamed North Hills. Two parts of North Hollywood got new names--one is now called West Toluca Lake, another Valley Village. Even portions of Van Nuys have been renamed--one is now part of Sherman Oaks and another is now called Valley Glen.

Peer Ghent, president of the Valley Glen Neighborhood Assn., led a residents’ renaming effort last year and said he is pleased with the results.

“It was unifying and positive in and of itself,” Ghent said about the drive.

Like the Lake Balboa group, it grew out of residents gathering at local Neighborhood Watch meetings and discovering they had their own identity.

“It was not a question of not being associated with Van Nuys,” Ghent, 59, said.

But for Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., any renaming movement negatively affects those who stay behind.

“It’s a bum rap on those who try to change and make our community better,” Schultz said. “It’s abandoning your community because you don’t want to be associated with the bad . . . We’re going to be a very elite community very soon. Van Nuys will be a hundred people.”

Several residents who support the Lake Balboa push and live in western Van Nuys made it clear that they do not feel any connection with the community’s more industrial area east of the San Diego Freeway.

“We live in a wonderful residential area we’re proud of,” Patrick Henry, 51, said. “Maybe we shouldn’t let people know how safe our community is.”

Evelyn Nichols has lived in her neighborhood 36 years and hopes a name change will differentiate her area from the gangs and shootings associated with other parts of Van Nuys.

“There is a good part and a bad part in Van Nuys. We feel we are in the good part,” Nichols, 70, said.

This is not the first time residents have tried to name themselves Lake Balboa. In 1994, Ellen Bagelman, president of the Lake Balboa Neighborhood Assn., was unable to collect enough signatures supporting a name change to persuade the City Council to grant one, she said.

Neuman said most residents settled on the name Lake Balboa because of the recreational activities, such as bicycling, jogging and in-line skating, available near the artificial lake. So far no one has complained about being named for the man-made lake that some associate with bad odors, he said. Opened in 1992, the 27-acre lake is filled with 72 million gallons of reclaimed water from the West Valley drainage area.

Stephen Moe, water manager of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department Valley Region, admitted that the water does smell in the summer because of photosynthesis, plant and algae growth, but other times, he said, “To me it smells like warm, soapy washing machine water.”

Name-change proponents dismiss any negativity about their cause and say getting rid of the name they have now is what matters most.

“We just want to remove the Van Nuys name . . . ,” Neuman said. “We’re not going to stop until this comes to fruition.”