Part of Van Nuys Boulevard Renamed

Bowing to residents’ complaints about safety and image, the Los Angeles City Council agreed Tuesday to rename a short segment of Van Nuys Boulevard as Terra Vista Way.

Homeowners requested the change in July 1997, saying emergency and business vehicles had trouble finding the 4,500-foot strip, which is detached from the main portion of Van Nuys Boulevard. They also cited concerns about negative images associated with the Van Nuys name.

The renaming drive was led by Northridge resident J. Frederick Huckvale, who has owned one of the affected properties since 1985. Huckvale said he sought the change after police were unable to find the home when his daughter, who lived there, called to report a break-in.

“I think it’s going to be a much safer area because now emergency vehicles can find it,” he said. “I think the property values will improve.”

Huckvale said he and his wife visited the 42 affected residents and property owners, gaining support for his petition from 36 of them.

The petition for change also cited property values.

“Real estate brokers have reported that homes in this section of Van Nuys Boulevard sell for less than others in the area because buyers are put off by the name of the street, associating the name with the commercial and high traffic characteristics of the street and the crime that unfortunately occurs frequently,” residents wrote to then-Councilman Richard Alarcon.”

Of 11 letters sent to the council regarding the change, only two were opposed.

The venerable Van Nuys name has taken hits before. Earlier this decade, areas of Van Nuys won permission to rename themselves Sherman Oaks and Valley Glen, and this past October, a group of west Van Nuys residents sought to call their neighborhood Lake Balboa, blaming Van Nuys’ perceived association with crime.

Isaac Newton Van Nuys, for whom the boulevard and the community are named, came to Los Angeles in 1865 and became a well-known wheat farmer, at one time owning nearly half a million acres in the Valley.