The Good Life in Enclave of Serenity : La Canada Flintridge: Residents in semi-rural area are vocal about high scholastic ratings and shielding community from crime and congestion.

By EVELYN DE WOLFE

Sept. 30, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Joyce and John Penido were having coffee and blueberry cake with a visitor in the sun room of their French country-style home in Flintridge. Outside, lush plantings sparkled in the morning dew and woodpeckers tapped at the sycamores.

A sense of the good life prevailed--much as early developer Sen. Frank P. Flint had envisioned for the area when he built these small estates for the affluent in the 1920s and ‘30s.

Flintridge is one of several neighborhoods of La Canada Flintridge that lies north and south of Foothill Boulevard and east and west of Angeles Crest Highway.

Others are Meadowgrove, Greenridge, Rancho, Country Club, Descanso, Mesa and Angeles Crest Estates and Upper La Canyada, the latter known as the Deodar area for its fragrant Himalayan pines introduced to the region in the 1920s.

Adjacent to Pasadena, Glendale and the Angeles Forest, at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, the community’s homes are largely tucked away in sheltered wooded areas that act as buffers to nearby intersecting freeways--the Foothill (210) and Glendale (2).

“The area has a serene, semi-rural quality. We love it here. No street lights, no sidewalks and gorgeous trees,” said Penido, a thoracic surgeon whose medical practice in Pasadena is only minutes away from his Flintridge home.

The Penidos, formerly of San Marino, purchased their 5,000-square-foot home and guest house for $160,000 in 1970 and have seen its worth rise to in excess of $2 million.

Meadowgrove, a part of Flintridge once surrounded by the Flintridge Golf Course, saw some of its finest mansions demolished in the 1960s to make way for the Foothill Freeway. Reduced to a small enclave, Meadowgrove’s elegant traditional homes also are in the multimillion-dollar price range.

By contrast, real estate “bargains” can still be found in the Rancho area in the eastern part of the city, where 1,200-square-foot homes on small lots sell from $325,000 to $500,000.

Chris Duryee of Dilbeck Realtors noted that half of the sales in La Canada Flintridge are to local people, the majority of whom are not first-time buyers. Building activity for the most part, she said, focuses on remodeling and additions to older homes, she said.

New construction is most apparent in the Greenridge area, a neighborhood that borders Angeles National Forest, where several large custom homes have been completed, ranging in size from 3,500 to 8,000 square feet and valued at $1.2 million to $1.7 million.

Local developer John Bluff has built eight homes in the area. “It’s the largest and last of the subdivisions in the city,” he said.

Geetha and Krish Krishnan, parents of three children, live in a Greenridge home built by Bluff and designed by an Indian architect to reflect their Indian heritage.

“The most special place in our home is the prayer room, a quiet and peaceful place that faces east according to our tradition. There we have an altar and special lights,” said Krishnan, an engineer who also runs a family real estate business with his wife.

There are many reasons why the Krishnans chose to live in La Canada, but property values were an all-important consideration, Krishnan said.

“People who know Beverly Hills and other high-priced areas are beginning to realize that La Canada Flintridge is a very unique place,” he said. “It offers the same excellent features in terms of location and surroundings, yet remains totally underpriced. Comparable Beverly Hills properties are selling between 50% and 100% more than properties here.”

Realtor Dan MacGregor noted that the appreciation rate for real estate has been rising steadily within the community. “Last year, it was 28%, and there was hardly any community 10 to 15 miles from here that was any higher.”

MacGregor said there has also been a substantial increase in the number of properties for sale. Currently, there are about 300 listed.

Some of the attraction for home buyers with young families are the excellent schools, proximity to Los Angeles and less smog than in neighboring communities because the community is situated at a higher altitude, MacGregor said.

New residents Steven and Rita Harwood sold their home in San Gabriel and moved to La Canada last spring.

“We have three growing boys, and we were looking for more space,” Rita Harwood said. “We now have a larger back yard with a tree house, lots of privacy and we get a real country feeling living here. More importantly, my husband has only a short commute to his downtown Los Angeles office.”

Twenty years ago, Jack and Laurie Balmer moved from Hollywood to La Canada for the same reasons. They had two young sons and La Canada seemed to offer not only an excellent school system but a good community environment, they said. Their home is in the Princess Anne Valley Crest section, just east of Angeles Crest Highway.

A retired ice show executive, Balmer describes fellow La Canadans as mostly white-collar, Caucasian, Protestant and Republican. “And very little has happened in the last 20 years to substantially change that profile,” Balmer said.

La Canada Flintridge was incorporated in 1976 under pressure from a coalition of its residents, determined to remain autonomous and ward off any possible annexation by Pasadena or Glendale.

Residents have continued to be vocal in their efforts to preserve the city’s semi-rural character, maintain a high scholastic rating, stall commercial development and shield the community from major crime and congestion, said Jack Samuelson, a prominent community leader and builder, who has just finished building his new home in the La Canyada area.

“We’re an interesting city, populated with good thinkers and civic-minded professionals. We have plenty of Indian chiefs and fewer braves,” he chuckled.

“Quality education has been a primary concern to all of us,” said Samuelson, who served several years on the La Canada Flintridge Unified School District board.

“Our SOS (Save Our Schools) communitywide volunteer effort raises funds annually for the school district to help provide additional teachers and diverse educational programs.”

This year’s SOS contribution came to $280,000, Samuelson said.

La Canada Flintridge also has its share of highly rated private schools, among them St. Francis High School, Flintridge Preparatory School and Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, formerly the luxury Flintridge Hotel built by Sen. Flint on 48 acres high in the San Rafael Hills overlooking the community.

Lois Hellenga, longtime columnist for the Valley Sun, summed up the spirit and flavor of the community as “both rural and cosmopolitan and definitely not laid back.

“It is populated with executive types and educated professionals used to making decisions and making things happen. You find a high degree of civic action and participation by both young and old.”

Mark and Debbie Ellis, who have two young children and another on the way, are deeply committed to strengthening community ties. Mark Ellis shares his father’s local dental practice, is president of the Kiwanis Club and active active in a number of other service organizations.

“I’ve lived in La Canada all my life, and as a teen-ager, it seemed sort of boring because there were not too many young people to socialize with. This is not your typical young family community. But if you’re lucky enough to live here, you can appreciate what a great place it is to raise kids,” Ellis said.

La Canada Flintridge residents have traditionally encouraged and/or participated in equestrian sports. Miles of bridle trails, developed early on throughout the region, reach far into the mountains, and connect to the prestigious Flintridge Riding Club, founded in 1925. Club members over the years have brought home numerous international honors won at the Olympics and World Cup competitions.

Residents have also traditionally opposed commercial development in the community. Several banks, a few new restaurants, a retail plaza and small shops and businesses make up the bulk of La Canada Flintridge’s activity along its main drag, Foothill Boulevard.

One the hottest and longest-fought issues within the community was the recently approved $25-million La Canada Village, a shopping center to be built by Sports Chalet owner Norbert Olberz, on Foothill Boulevard.

Olberz started out with a small store on Foothill Boulevard years ago, then gradually bought up surrounding parcels until it added up to 12 1/2 acres, said Sam Allen, chief executive officer of Sports Chalet.

“Mr. Olberz was encouraged by city officials more than a decade ago to do something that would enhance the commercial strip. That’s basically how the idea of a 155,000-square-foot retail center evolved. It will be built in a Craftsman style, using natural materials and hardscape, to preserve the community’s character.”

Part of the commercial scene each year is Fiesta Days, a merchant-staged tribute to the city’s colorful past, with events themed to the legendary fiestas and rodeos of the mid-1800s, when the dons rode horseback over their acreage dressed in Spanish caballero fashion.

“In those days, bears infested the canyons between the Glendale, Montrose and La Canada and visitors were met by vaqueros to give them safe escort along Verdugo Road. There was much firing of guns and the waving serapes to keep away the wild beasts,” said realtor Mary Ellen Moore, whose office is a rich repository of the community’s early history.

“Our office was founded in 1922 by Sen. Frank P. Flint and his partner, J. Harold Schenck, so we’re lucky to have such a treasure in original photographs and rare documents relating to the community’s beginnings,” said Moore, who is compiling a history of the region.

The area, she said, once was part of 42,000 acres north of the Pueblo of Los Angeles assigned to Jose Maria Verdugo for livestock grazing.

The town of La Canada was first recorded by Charles McArthur in 1887 and had 67 lots, including the one on which early pioneer Frank Lanterman built his home. It has since become a historical landmark.

Other landmarks include several large mansions designed by the noted black architect Paul Williams, among them the Hoag residence that cost $600,000 to build, an unheard-of sum in the 1920s. Also Descanso Gardens, a 140-acre, year-round showplace for roses, gardenias and azaleas in a forest of live oaks, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory operated by Caltech, on the eastern boundary of the city.

Governed by a five-member council, the city relies on the California Highway Patrol and the Sheriff’s Crescenta Valley Station for protection. Said deputy sheriff Jean Verdini: “The fact that we log vandalism and misdemeanors in La Canada is one indication that not much happens there of any major crime significance.”

AT A GLANCE Population

1990 estimate: 21,030

1980-90 change: 4.4%

Median age: 34.6 years

Annual income

Per capita: 33,259

Median household: 76,261

Household distribution

Less than $15,000: 5.2%

$15,000 - $30,000: 7.3%

$30,000 - $50,000: 16.6%

$50,000 - $75,000: 20.0%