Towns, Los Angeles County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 91310, 91384
Castaic is a mountain town split by Interstate 5 and located near large reservoirs that are used for boating, fishing (stocked with trout) and seasonal swimming. It is the last town before tackling the long mountainous stretch called the Grapevine that drops Interstate 5 into the San Joaquin Valley. www.mccormacks.com
For a long time Castaic, also located near Santa Clarita, was no more than a popular truck stop. It still is but in recent years it has become known as a residential address.
Val Verde Park is a small town about five miles southwest of Castaic. It shares government services, mainly schools, with Castaic and is also adding homes.
Newhall Ranch it is a giant development that will be built just south of Castaic around the junction of Highway 126 and Interstate 5. Plans call for 21,000 homes, condos and apartments and housing for the elderly. Construction may start in 2008 with the first homes ready for occupancy by 2010.
In the big picture, Los Angeles County, having built out its communities around the old downtown, has been steadily pushing into the country. The San Fernando Valley was followed in the 1970s by Santa Clarita and in the 1990s by Stevenson Ranch, both still building, and now the land north and west of Santa Clarita is coming into play.
Santa Clarita is a legal city. It has clearly defined boundaries and municipal services, such as police and recreation, that serve the people within these boundaries. www.mccormacks.com
Castaic, Stevenson Ranch, Val Verde Park and Newhall Ranch are not legal cities; they are unincorporated communities under the jurisdiction of the county government. Although county planners may have a clear idea of what they consider Val Verde, Castaic and Stevenson Ranch, these places do not have legal borders and the locals and others may identify their locations in different ways, perhaps by the name of a development.
Castaic has a traditional location, the freeway exit, but several large subdivisions have been built several miles into the countryside. They are in the Castiac area but may call themselves something else. Future housing may be marketed as, near Magic Mountain or Santa Clarita.
This location-naming business gets a little weird but is easily sorted out. Keep in mind:
• How this area looks now and how it will look in 10 years will be vastly different.
• Communities may start off with one name and end with another. This whole region or parts of it may vote to become a legal city or several cities. Or some sections may annex to Santa Clarita. www.mccormacks.com
• Castaic has its own elementary school district, called Castaic. Val Verde students attend the schools of the Newhall elementary district, which serves Stevenson Ranch and part of Santa Clarita, and a small number go to Castaic schools. Both districts feed into the William S. Hart high school district, which serves the entire region.
Each district has its own school board and each is responsible for its own funding and programs. These programs differ from district to district. Castaic district goes up to the eighth grade; Newhall district stops at the sixth, then advances its students to the Hart district, which ranges from seventh grade to grade 12.
Often in fast-growing communities school construction lags home construction. This may be happening now. Both Castaic and Newhall district are using year-round schedules, a method to handle crowding. These schedules sometimes displease parents because they disrupt work and vacation plans.
To avoid surprises, find out the schedules at each stage: elementary, middle and high. Ask school officials when more schools are to be built. The opening of a school forces changes in attendance boundaries.
Castaic district is building a new elementary. Newhall district in recent years has opened schools in Stevenson Ranch. The high-school district in 2005 opened another high school, called West Ranch, in Stevenson Ranch. This school will serve teens from the Castaic area. West High started with a freshman class and will add a class each year until it covers 9th to 12th grades. www.mccormacks.com
Despite difficulties with scheduling, new developments are often popular with young parents. Typically, they bring in numerous playmates for the kids and many of the schools, being new, are built to state-of-the-art standards with special attention to high-tech instruction. With so many families, these communities often make education and recreation high priorities.
School rankings are ranging from the 60th to 80th percentiles, and seem to be rising, a suggestion that the region's demographics are moving up market.
Castaic and Val Verde Park are being developed home by home or small tract by small tract. If the tract is large enough, it will sometimes be governed by a homeowners association.
Newhall Ranch is being developed as master-planned community but in stages. Master-planned communities generally do a good job of moving traffic to the freeways and of defining themselves. They tell you up front where they are going to build the schools, the apartments, the single homes and businesses, the parks and so on. In brief: three large parks, 10 community parks, golf course, lake, trails, 6,000 acres of open space, businesses that the developer predicts will supply about 20,000 jobs (short commute for many). Ask about the role of homeowner associations and who pays for parks and recreation.
Castaic proper is built on hills and mesas overlooking Interstate 5. The town has tract homes built in the 1950s and 1960s and showing their age but within a few blocks other homes, constructed over the last 20 years, kick in with a modern look, the popular Mediterranean style, creamy stucco and tile roofs. www.mccormacks.com
On the east side of the freeway, above Lake Hughes Drive, a modern neighborhood can be found, many of the homes two stories, four and five bedroom, small front yards, two- and three-car garages, mail boxes at the curbs, sidewalks, utility lines buried, street lights, views of the countryside. Common grounds maintained by homeowners association.
The downtown is loaded with gas stations, truck stops, fast-food restaurants, motels and stores that have been around for decades. But, harbingers of the future, there is a big supermarket with a bakery and a large drug store.
The freeway access, on the west side, is awkwardly designed and causes backups. As the homes come in, if history is precedent, the access roads will be overhauled, the old stores remodeled or demolished and new stores built (this is happening now).
Moving south, on Sloan Canyon Road, tracts built 30 or 40 years ago, well-maintained, cinderblock walls, sidewalks on one side of road. Horse ranches here and there. Small park with playground. Trees have had time to mature.
A few miles more to the south, a large subdivision, served by a four-lane parkway (Hillcrest) that goes for miles back into the country. Planted median strip. Homes built over the past 30 years, many in the Mediterranean style. www.mccormacks.com
Still farther south, off Halsey Canyon Road, more modern homes, all in the middle class but some moving up the scale in size and appointments. Stores and shops near The Old Road, freeway frontage.
Dry, strong feeling of country. Rugged hills. Many of these homes are built in canyons. Oil derricks on some hills, the nodding donkeys steadily pumping away.
Several parks, including a large sports complex just east of the freeway. Horse country. Trails leading into hills. Six Flags Magic Mountain at Santa Clarita. Big park at the Castaic Lagoon (reservoir). Hiking, biking, canoeing, camping.
Val Verde Park sits by itself in a canyon about three miles west of the freeway. No sidewalks. Some streets unpaved. Mix of homes, some old and small. Small park in center of town, another one on outskirts. On the west side, the homes are newer and often larger (two stories). Shade trees. Some streets butt up against the hills. Intimate, away-from-it-all feeling. Kids splashing in small plastic pools plopped on the lawns. Bus service.
No crime figures but Santa Clarita, which is representative of the region, is low in crime. Patrolled by sheriff's deputies. See Crime.
Loads of felons. The sheriff runs a big jail just east of the freeway. www.mccormacks.com
Commute for many depends on how fast I-5 moves and distance to jobs. If the job is in the San Fernando, the drive, for many, will probably be considered endurable, with occasional blasts of pain. Alternatives: buses and a commute rail line with stations in Santa Clarita. Car-pooling (decidedly not Southern California but some heretics do it). See Commute.
• In planning, 3,900 homes on the north side of Castaic Lake. Development, which may break ground in 2007, is to include a high school.
• Town councils advise county officials on developments and sound out local opinions.
• Local stores and restaurants for immediate needs. In Santa Clarita, a short drive: department stores, movies, malls, bookstores, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Costco, Wal-Marts. Varied choice of restaurants.
For orientation on cities, towns and neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, see County Overview.
