Granada Hills is bordered on the south by the communities of North Hills and Northridge, on the east by Mission Hills and Sylmar, and the west by Porter Ranch. The Ronald Reagan (118), San Diego (405) and Golden State (Interstate 5) Freeways cross through Granada Hills. Several of the community’s major thoroughfares include Balboa Boulevard, Woodley, Hayvenhurst, and Haskell Avenues, Rinaldi Street, San Fernando Mission Boulevard, Chatsworth Street, and Devonshire Street.
Granada Hills covers an area of 15.11 square miles, and had a population of 50,535 population in 2000, and 53,998 population in 2008. It has 3,344 people per square mile, among the lowest densities in the City of Los Angeles, and L.A. County.
The area is served by two Neighborhood Councils – Granada Hills South and Granada Hills North.
Granada Hills is served by the Granada Hills Chamber of Commerce, http://granadachamber.com/ founded in 1928, and located in Old Granada Hills on Chatsworth St. The small shops, businesses and restaurants lining Chatsworth St. between Zelzah and Balboa are are reminiscent of a beautiful small town Main Street and it has a strong sense of community.
History
In 1916, the San Fernando Valley's first oil well was drilled in what is now Granada Hills. The oil well was located at the northern tip of Zelzah Avenue. The community of Granada Hills was founded in 1927 as "Granada." It became Granada Hills in 1942. The area started out as a dairy farm and orchard known as the Sunshine Ranch, which produced apricots, oranges, walnuts and beans. Like many of the communities of the San Fernando Valley, the orange, lemon and grapefruit trees commonly found in backyards are remnants of the farms and orchards that were once there.
The first house in Granada Hills was built by Captain and Mrs. J.L. Miller on the corner of Kingsbury St. and White Oak Ave. In 1927, not long after the first service station was built at the corner of Chatsworth and Shoshone, the Granada Business District was launched, starting with a two story Spanish style store on the corner of Chatsworth and White Oak.
Granada Hills is home of the beautiful Deodar Pine Trees which were planted in 1932 on White Oak Ave. between San Fernando Mission and San Jose St., and have been declared Historic-Cultural Monuments (L.A. Historic-Cultural Monument No. 41). It also has a unique tract of homes called Balboa Highlands, built in the 1960s by noted architect Joseph Eichler. The 108 modernist homes were declared a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone in 2010 after a 10 year effort. The Eichler was noted for not discriminating against ethnic minorities, which was unusual at the time, and designing homes that were affordable to the middle class.
To see information on schools, crime statistics, more detailed demographic information and other information on Granada Hills, visit https://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/granada-hills/.