The old Circle S Ranch property at Saticoy Street and Woodlake Avenue is entering its next chapter. Site preparation has begun at 7556–7572 N. Woodlake Avenue in West Hills, where the latest plans call for 160 affordable apartments, down from the 332 units previously approved by the city.
For longtime neighbors, this is the corner with the Dutch Colonial Revival house, horse-ranch history and grounds that survived as the surrounding land filled with homes. The house was demolished in 2024. Now, a smaller version of the apartment development is moving ahead, diagonally across the intersection from another major change: Chaminade’s planned athletic facilities at the former Fields Market shopping center.
From 332 apartments to 160
Urbanize LA reported on September 23, 2026 that building permits now describe a four-to-five-story building with 160 apartments for low- and moderate-income seniors. That is 172 fewer apartments, or about a 52 percent reduction, from the earlier proposal.
JZ Development, LLC obtained approval in 2024 for a five-story building with 332 senior apartments and 154 parking spaces. JZA Architecture designed that version with a Mediterranean-style exterior. The updated renderings below show the revised family-housing proposal presented by Elysian Housing in April 2026.
There is also a detail about who the apartments will serve: Elysian Housing’s April 2026 presentation explicitly calls the project West Hills Family Apartments. It describes five stories, 158 affordable apartments and two manager units, with one-, two- and three-bedroom layouts and income restrictions ranging from 30 to 70 percent of area median income. This developer proposal conflicts with Urbanize’s later senior-housing description; the final recorded restrictions will govern eligibility.
The April proposal includes approximately 280 parking spaces, an existing landscape buffer, setbacks exceeding 25 feet from the street and a landscaped connection between Woodlake and Saticoy. Amenities include courtyards, a children’s play area, gym, yoga room, co-working space and dog run. Its rent table uses 2025 figures, not confirmed opening rents. See the housing mix and amenities on PDF pages 4–5.
The developer also states that this version follows a by-right path under the city’s Affordable Housing Incentive Program, submitting directly to Building and Safety rather than relying on the previous entitlement. That is the developer’s description of its approval strategy, not a new commission decision. Proposal, PDF page 3.
The neighbors’ fight over the larger project
The city’s 827-page appeal packet tells the story of a substantial neighborhood effort to stop or change the original proposal. Residents gathered signatures, circulated project information, contacted Councilmember John Lee’s office and submitted a petition package exceeding 200 pages. The West Hills Neighborhood Council submitted an opposition letter dated October 17, 2024.
Planning staff counted approximately 1,650 petition signatures and 130 written comments, along with written support from five residents. These are counts of submissions in the planning record, rather than a vote of the neighborhood.
Seven appeals were filed in December 2024. Four qualified for review, from Eric Anderson, Robert J. Ball, Jeronnel Barican and Carlos L. Morales, represented by Robert C. Baker. The other three were rejected because the appellants did not meet the adjoining-property eligibility requirement.
Many objections concerned the everyday experience of living around the site: a five-story building beside single-story houses, privacy, shadows on solar panels, street parking, missing sidewalks and possible use of narrow alleys. Residents also questioned traffic around Chaminade and access for emergency vehicles heading to the hospital.
Other appeals sought environmental review and soil testing, citing the area’s aerospace and defense history, or challenged the notice process and access to revised plans. Staff organized the arguments into 23 issues. The contamination concerns were allegations; the report did not establish contamination at this property. The staff analysis begins its appeal discussion on page A-18.
Did the old subdivision restrictions apply?
One appellant pointed to deed restrictions requiring single-story, single-family homes, arguing that changes needed approval from two-thirds of the owners. But the attached covenant expressly refers to lots 1–207, while the ranch parcel appears elsewhere in the record as FR 208. That is a significant distinction when considering whether the surrounding subdivision’s restrictions applied to the remaining ranch property. The covenant appears on PDF page 233; the parcel identification is on page 175.
Staff also noted unenforceable racial restrictions in older documents and explained that the planning review concerned density-bonus requirements. The commission was not issuing a court ruling on every private covenant, and the record does not establish that the neighbors were seeking to enforce racial restrictions.
What the city decided
Planning staff treated the application as ministerial, meaning it was reviewed against established requirements with limited discretion, and concluded that it was exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review. Staff said the affordable-housing proposal qualified for density and height benefits under state law, including provisions tied to its location in a designated low-vehicle-travel area. The 154 parking spaces were voluntary because the city could not require vehicle parking for this proposal.
Staff also concluded that the record lacked the specific, quantifiable evidence needed to deny the requested incentives on safety grounds. Building, fire, accessibility and soils reviews would still occur during permitting. Those conclusions concerned the application before the commission, rather than a finding that every construction requirement had already been met.
On February 27, 2025, the commission denied the appeals 5–0, leaving the 332-unit approval in place. The final determination, mailed March 17, 2025, included 55-year affordability restrictions and reductions in required side yards and open space.
The approval also required at least 83 on-site trees and protection of an existing black walnut, three protected street trees along Saticoy and three protected trees on neighboring land to the south. A housing-replacement condition provisionally required one very-low-income replacement unit for the former dwelling. These conditions belong to the earlier approval; the revised project needs to be read against its own final documents.
The later reduction to 160 apartments was not ordered by the commission. Although it followed the neighborhood campaign, the records reviewed here do not explain the downsizing or establish that the appeals caused it.
A different scale for a single-family neighborhood
For this quiet pocket of West Hills, long defined by detached houses, lawns and a white-picket-fence image of suburban life, 160 apartments would be a striking change. Larger apartment communities are more familiar along corridors such as Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the east and around Oxnard Street to the south. The project appears unusual within the immediate single-family enclave, although calling it the area's first apartment development or identifying the nearest complex would require a fuller property survey.
Could this signal more redevelopment of single-family properties? The blog recently covered 7032 Cozycroft Avenue in Winnetka, where a proposal would replace one house with five homes and three junior accessory dwelling units. That is eight residences in a different form and under a different approval process from Woodlake's apartment complex. Together, the proposals show how established neighborhoods can face new housing at very different scales; two projects alone do not establish a neighborhood-wide trend.
The West Valley's quiet suburban image also sits alongside a darker chapter covered in this blog's Alpha Dog filming-location story. The film dramatized the 2000 kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, a West Hills resident, in a case involving Jesse James Hollywood and a $1,200 drug debt owed by Nicholas's older half-brother. Hollywood was convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder in 2009. The real events spanned the West Valley and the Santa Barbara area; this is broader neighborhood history, with no established connection to Circle S Ranch.
The financing entries
A March 27, 2026 filing in Council File 26-0483 identifies Elysian Housing, LLC and Capstone Equities, LLC as sponsors acting for borrower 7556 Woodlake, LP. It requests approval for the California Municipal Finance Authority to issue or reissue up to $60 million in bonds for acquisition, construction, development and equipping of West Hills Apartments, a 160-unit rental project including two manager units.
The filing says repayment would come from borrower-provided revenues or funds, with no city funds pledged and no city repayment liability. Attached minutes record a March 17, 2026 telephone financing hearing at which no public comments were received. That hearing was separate from the earlier land-use appeals. The motion and attached resolution document the financing request; this filing alone does not establish that bonds were issued.
The mortgage-history summary provided for the property lists two Citibank NYS entries recorded July 31, 2026: $69.42 million, labeled conventional, and $5.58 million, with no loan type specified. Both list an August 1, 2060 due date.
An earlier entry records a $2.625 million commercial loan from Arixa Enhanced Income Fund L P on December 19, 2025, due January 1, 2027.
The two Citibank amounts total $75 million. That figure comes from the property-records mortgage summary. It does not establish the construction budget, current debt balance, amounts disbursed or whether the Arixa loan was repaid. The relationship between these entries and the $60 million bond request is not established; the figures should not be added together as separate financing proceeds.
Before the apartments: Circle S Ranch
The ranch history reaches back well before the surrounding tract homes. A local-history account shared on Facebook, also reproduced by Valley News Group with credit to the Valley Relics Museum, traces the land to John T. Hadley’s purchase in 1911. It then passed through Hadley’s widow and nurseryman Virgil Deaver before automobile dealer Frank Stewart Howard acquired it around 1926.
A property this large and distinctive also attracted celebrity folklore. Neighbors have associated it with names ranging from Lucille Ball to Captain & Tennille, but those ownership stories are unconfirmed. Ball and Desi Arnaz's Desilu Ranch was in Chatsworth, while Captain & Tennille lived in the Twin Lakes area of Chatsworth, as discussed in the blog's Rumbo Recorders history and confirmed by the Chatsworth Historical Society. It is understandable how such stories took hold: before searchable newspaper archives and online property records, an unusual estate behind gates left plenty of room for word-of-mouth history. Repetition, however, is not proof of ownership.
According to that account, Howard commissioned the two-story Dutch Colonial Revival house in 1927 for $8,500. The property also had a garage and chicken coops, with grounds used for exotic birds and thoroughbred horses. The city’s later SurveyLA assessment independently records the house’s 1927 construction date and architectural style; the ownership narrative comes from the local-history account.
George and Mary Chambers acquired the property in 1930. After George’s death in 1940, the account says Mary sold it to May Carreaud, who leased it in 1944 to Grenville W. Stratton, a Douglas Aircraft executive and horse breeder. Stratton reportedly added a guest house and converted the largest chicken coop into a barn.
Stratton purchased the ranch in 1947, expanding the operation associated with Circle S Stables. The later monument nomination notes that the name appeared in newspapers as early as 1938, although its connection to this property at that earlier date was uncertain. Additional historical notes describe a 38.5-acre purchase, considerably larger than today’s approximately 96,000-square-foot development site.
The same history attributes the ranch’s 1954 closure to Stratton’s poor health and the expense of an estate dispute with his stepdaughter after his wife’s death. It describes a 1956 subdivision creating 207 home lots and a separate 3.46-acre parcel for the surviving ranch buildings. Those details have not been checked against the underlying deeds or court records.
The account identifies Stratton’s second wife, Janice, as the seller of the remaining property to William and Joy Ross in 1972, followed by placement in a family trust in 1990. The monument nomination gives the sale date as May 15, 1972, and identifies William Ross as a banker. It also describes two barns moved off the ranch and later demolished, including one relocated to Zelzah Avenue. A surviving permit gives a more precise destination for one large horse barn: farther north on Woodlake.
What the historic-monument application adds
The 75-page Circle S Ranch monument application and March 5, 2015 staff report bring together a historical narrative, photographs, permits and supporting records. The nomination was prepared by Charles J. Fisher for Friends of Circle S Ranch and signed September 4, 2014. It argued that the estate mattered both for its architecture and for its place in the Valley's transition from working ranches and country retreats to suburbia.
The nomination identifies the contractor as J. H. Hillock & Son, rather than the Hillard spelling in the circulated Facebook history; the architect is listed as unknown. Its narrative dates the $8,500 main house and $500 garage to January 1927, followed by 14 chicken coops in March and another in November. It describes Howard as using the property as a retreat from his city home. Nomination, PDF pages 10–12.
The house's distinctive features included its symmetrical front, gambrel roof ends, long shed dormers, multi-pane wood casement windows and arched entrance porch, with brick veneer below and smooth stucco above. The description also recorded a second two-story dwelling behind the house, a pergola, a gazebo and mature landscaping. Planning staff considered the property's architectural character substantially intact despite alterations. Architectural description, PDF page 9.
The nomination gives the ranch a notable racing connection: Your Host, later the sire of Kelso, reportedly recovered at Circle S after a shoulder injury ended his racing career in 1951. It also identifies Yankee Valor, a son of Stratton's Heelfly, with the ranch's breeding history. These associations formed part of the nomination's case for preserving the property. PDF pages 11–12.
There is a revealing detail about the neighborhood that replaced the ranch: according to the nomination, the Strattons partnered with 13 homebuilders, each taking an ownership interest in the subdivision, to encourage a wider variety of house designs. It also dates the original barn's relocation to Zelzah to 1957, distinguishing it from the large horse barn moved in 1955. PDF page 12.
The application has some internal inconsistencies. Its alteration list and historical narrative date a guesthouse to 1944, while the architectural description says 1941. It also distinguishes that structure from the garage converted to living quarters. Those dates should not be assigned conclusively to the later 7566½ Woodlake listing without matching the building to its original permit.
Circle S Ranch in the newspaper archives
Clippings are arranged by publication date, using the supplied archive filenames. Classified ads use descriptive titles. The undated clipping follows the dated items. Click any clipping to open the full-size image in a new tab and enlarge it to read.
The Los Angeles Times
December 19, 1931
The Van Nuys News
January 28, 1937
The Van Nuys News
April 21, 1938
The Van Nuys News
June 23, 1938
Los Angeles Examiner
September 9, 1941
San Fernando Valley Times
April 6, 1944
The Los Angeles Times
September 3, 1944
The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet
July 5, 1948
Daily News
November 8, 1948
Los Angeles Evening Citizen News
February 9, 1950
The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet
March 23, 1950
The Los Angeles Times
April 4, 1951
Valley Times
April 6, 1951
Valley Times
April 17, 1952
The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet
August 30, 1960
Newspaper and publication date unidentified in supplied clipping.
Four permits tell another part of the story
The old building permits offer some of the most specific details about how the property was used. They document authorized or proposed work, rather than proving that each project was completed.
February 13, 1931: maid’s quarters. An alteration permit called for converting part of an existing building’s second-story storage area into maid’s quarters, at an estimated cost of $500. It lists a two-story building measuring 20 by 56 feet and two buildings on the lot. The 2015 monument nomination identifies this space as the garage’s upper loft, helping explain the later residential use of an accessory building. This was an alteration to an existing structure, not the original house permit.
January 13, 1954: a one-day horse show. Circle S Ranch applied for a 50-by-50-foot tent for a horse show scheduled for January 16. United Tent & Supply Co. was the contractor, with a $125 valuation. The application documents preparations for the event, although it does not confirm that the show took place.
August 5, 1955: moving the horse barn. A relocation permit called for moving a 100-by-40-foot, one-story horse barn from 7566 to 7913 Woodlake Avenue. Jack Allen was listed as owner, and the $1,200 job included a new foundation. July 20 and August 1 appear as earlier processing dates; August 5 is the permit date. This record does not establish a subsequent move to Zelzah or either barn’s eventual demolition.
June 3, 1976: a chicken house. W. G. Ross, listed as both owner and contractor, applied to build a 12-by-24-foot chicken house at 7566 Woodlake Avenue. The 288-square-foot building was to be 11 feet high, with wood walls and a wood roof, at an estimated cost of $2,000. Its legal description, Lot 208 of Tract 21391, connects the application to the remaining ranch parcel.
A recognized historic house, but no monument designation
SurveyLA’s March 12, 2013 report, pages 56–57, lists the house at 7572 N. Woodlake Avenue. It recognized both a rare surviving 1920s estate in West Hills and an especially strong example of Dutch Colonial Revival architecture, a style uncommon in the Valley.
That recognition did not result in local landmark protection. The March 5, 2015 staff report recommended taking the property under consideration for further investigation; it was not a final designation approval. The city’s planning record states that the City Council denied the Historic-Cultural Monument nomination on August 5, 2015. The report notes SurveyLA eligibility for the California and National historic registers, a separate finding from formal designation.
A demolition permit for the main house was issued May 14, 2024. Valley News Group reported on May 24 that the house had been demolished that week. Its coverage also recounted preservation efforts by neighborhood council members, including Dan Brin, who said successive council offices had blocked his designation efforts. The demolition preceded the 2025 apartment appeal decision.
The ranch people remember
For some neighbors, the memories are smaller and more personal: feeding goats through the fence on Quimby, visiting the Ross children, finding old Circle S Ranch brochures or passing the house on trips to Alpha Beta.
In a Valley Relics Facebook discussion, former tenant Ray Kinsner recalled living at 7566 Woodlake from early 2004 until August 2011. He described a guest building with two upstairs apartments above garages, a larger downstairs living space, a fireplace and grounds planted with citrus, plum, apple and peach trees. He remembered the estate as a peaceful home during a difficult period in his life.
Those are personal recollections, including the apartment arrangement, rather than verified building records. Stories in the same discussion about Donald Douglas owning the estate and Franklin Roosevelt visiting have not been established by the records reviewed here.
Inside the guesthouse at 7566½ Woodlake Avenue
These photographs were supplied from an older Zillow listing for the guesthouse at 7566½ Woodlake Avenue. They show the property as photographed for that listing. Click any image to open the full-size version in a new tab.
Source: older Zillow guesthouse listing; images supplied by the author. Original listing date and photographer not provided.
Another changing corner across the street
Diagonally across Saticoy and Woodlake, the former Fields Market shopping center is the site of Chaminade College Preparatory’s North Campus athletic expansion. The school announced the approximately 4.8-acre acquisition in 2018, when the center contained 16 businesses.
The expansion plans include athletic fields, an outdoor pool and parking, with a pedestrian bridge over Saticoy connecting the property to the main campus. The documented plan does not increase student enrollment.
Fields Market also had a life on screen. FOX 11’s December 2024 closure coverage listed Guy’s Grocery Games, Barry, Bird Box and Curb Your Enthusiasm among the productions filmed there. Between the former market and Circle S Ranch, two familiar West Hills properties are taking on very different uses.
Another ranch became senior housing at 8138 Woodlake
There is a related story just up Woodlake Avenue, near Roscoe Boulevard. 8138 Woodlake Avenue was another large ranch property associated with Anna Yrigoyen. Research supplied for this article traces the ranch to at least 1947 and identifies Yrigoyen as an owner, with the ranch surviving until demolition in 2000. A property-record summary lists the site at 5.59 acres and dates the replacement building to 2001.
The property became Fairwinds–West Hills, the independent- and assisted-living community at that address. The newspaper clipping below places Anna Yrigoyen at the address decades before that change, in 1957.
Published in The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet on January 13, 1957, “Flornes-Yrigoyen Troth Told” announced the engagement of Dolores Yrigoyen and Bruce Flornes. It identified the bride-to-be's mother as Mrs. Anna Yrigoyen of 8138 Woodlake Avenue, then described as Canoga Park. This family announcement offers a small glimpse of the property's residential past, although it does not establish acreage, ownership or the later redevelopment dates.
The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet
January 13, 1957
Click to enlarge and read.
Fairwinds is a reminder that Circle S is part of a longer sequence of changes along Woodlake: large residential and ranch parcels have given way to developments serving many more residents. The two projects have different housing and care arrangements, but the earlier conversion near Roscoe provides a useful neighborhood comparison.
What comes next
The September report marks the start of site preparation, but does not provide an opening date, rents or an application period. General affordable-housing listings are available through the City of Los Angeles housing registry and the Los Angeles County Housing Resource Center; an active listing for this project has not been confirmed.
The revised plans will determine what rises at the corner. The permits, photographs and neighborhood memories preserve what stood there before: a country estate that became a horse ranch, then a remnant of the Valley’s agricultural past surrounded by suburban homes.
Explore more neighborhood history, architecture and development on the SFV Blog Architecture and Real Estate page.
Research links and sources
- “Flornes-Yrigoyen Troth Told,” The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet, January 13, 1957, supplied clipping; 8138 Woodlake property summary; and Fairwinds–West Hills official website.
- Circle S Ranch Historic-Cultural Monument nomination and March 5, 2015 staff report, CHC-2015-770-HCM — 75-page packet; historical narrative, architectural description, photographs and supporting records.
- Urbanize LA: September 23, 2026 project update.
- Elysian Housing: April 2026 West Hills Family Apartments proposal.
- Council File 26-0483: March 27, 2026 bond-financing filing.
- City Planning: 827-page appeal report and exhibits.
- Planning Commission: final determination mailed March 17, 2025.
- SurveyLA: Woodlake Avenue entry, pages 56–57.
- Valley News Group: Historic West Hills Home Demolished.
- Circle S Ranch history shared on Facebook and Valley Relics discussion and resident memories.
- Los Angeles building-permit scans dated February 13, 1931; January 13, 1954; August 5, 1955; and June 3, 1976, supplied for this article.
- Property-records mortgage-history summary and historical newspaper clippings supplied for this article. Image credits and supplied photograph dates appear in the captions.
- Chaminade acquisition announcement, campus expansion filing and FOX 11 coverage of Fields Market.
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