San Fernando Valley

• Includes communities within the City of Los Angeles as well as the municipalities of Calabasas, Hidden Hills, San Fernando, Burbank, and Glendale

• Bounded by major mountain ranges, including the Santa Susana and San Gabriel mountains to the north and the Santa Monica Mountains to the south

• Surrounding mountain ranges provide a natural barrier to many types of movement, isolating the region and reinforcing connections among Valley communities

• Transportation routes connecting the Valley to main areas of Los Angeles are limited and often highly congested

• Two of the top ten most congested corridors in the U.S. originate in the San Fernando Valley: US-101 (from CA-134 to CA-110) and I-405 (from US-101 to I-105)

• Roughly 299,000 vehicles travel each day through the Sepulveda Pass (part of I-405 that connects the Valley to West LA)

• More than twice as much daily traffic as the Golden Gate Bridge

• Nearly 10 percent greater traffic than the Bay Bridge, connecting San Francisco to Oakland

• Impervious surfaces create an urban heat island effect, where densely packed infrastructure such as roads and buildings absorb and re-emit heat from the sun, increasing surface heat

• Satellite data shows surface temperatures are significantly higher in the Valley than in surrounding areas due to this effect

• Santa Monica Mountains block cool coastal breezes from reaching the Valley, causing hot dry air to become trapped and raising temperatures well above those of nearby coastal areas

• Woodland Hills is about 12 miles north of coastal Malibu, but often experiences temperatures nearly 20 degrees higher in the summer as cool sea breezes are blocked from the Valley

• Higher energy demands for heating/cooling and water demands for landscape irrigation

• Major roads (I-405, US-101) are barriers to neighborhood connectivity and interpersonal interaction

• Subregions are distinct demographic and socioeconomic communities with divergent interpersonal connectivity

• About 18 percent of the more than 10 million people in Los Angeles County live in the Valley

• Valley’s population accounts for nearly 40 percent of the City of Los Angeles’ population of nearly 3.9 million people

• Hispanic/Latinx population is the largest group within the Valley, City, and County

Hispanic/Latinx population is highly spatially uneven across the Valley and composes an overwhelming majority of the population in Northeast Valley communities

• Asian population is higher in Northwest Valley than other subregions

• White population is distributed across the Valley but clusters in Southwest and Southeast communities, especially in affluent areas adjacent to the Santa Monica Mountains

• Burbank and Glendale have a notably less diverse population than the rest of the Valley, with a large majority White population

• About 36 percent of Glendale’s population is of Armenian ethnicity

• Median income is over 5 percent higher than Los Angeles County and well over 15 percent higher than the City of Los Angeles

• Home ownership considerably higher and home values marginally more affordable than the City of Los Angeles

• Fewer households below poverty level than City or County

Economic disparities among Valley subregions, however, continue to persist despite the overall economic strength of the region.

• Median household income in the East SFV remains significantly lower than the West SFV though incomes in the East SFV decreased less over the last decade than other subregions

• Income of Burbank and Glendale higher than the East SFV but well below the West SFV despite highest home value

• Burbank and Glendale have lowest home ownership

• East SFV lags behind in terms of higher education and household poverty but has made important improvements over the last decade

• Unique geography of the San Fernando Valley provides support for the treatment of this region as a community of interest separate from the City and County of Los Angeles as a whole

• Valley’s topography, climate, and demographics are notably distinct from the rest of the Los Angeles metropolitan region

• Valley is impacted by unique circumstances that should be recognized to effectively address the challenges faced by this community

• Barraclough, L. (2011). Making the San Fernando Valley: Rural Landscapes, Urban Development, and White Privilege. University of Georgia Press.
• California Department of Transportation. Traffic Census Program. Traffic Volumes: 2019 Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT). Retrieved from  https://dot.ca.gov/programs/traffic-operations/census .
• California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment (2018). Los Angeles Region Report. Retrieved from  https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-11/Reg%20Report-%20SUM-CCCA4-2018-007%20LosAngeles_ADA.pdf .
• County of Los Angeles Public Library (n.d.). “San Fernando Community History.” Retrieved from  https://lacountylibrary.org/sanfernando-local-history .
• Forkenbrock, D. J. and G. E. Weisbrod (2001). Guidebook for Assessing the Social and Economic Effects of Transportation Projects. National Cooperative Highway Research Program. University of Iowa, Iowa City.
• Hodges, H. T. (1986). “Charles Maclay: California Missionary, San Fernando Valley Pioneer: PART III.” Southern California Quarterly 68(4): 329-363.
• INRIX (2020). 2019 Global Traffic Scorecard. Retrieved from  https://inrix.com/scorecard .
• Johnson, J. (2006). Ethnohistoric Overview for the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park Cultural Resources Inventory Project. State of California Department of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved from  http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/21299/files/sspshp%20ethnohistory-complete.pdf .
• Mini, C., Hogue, T. S. and S. Pincetl (2014). “Estimation of residential outdoor water use in Los Angeles, California.” Landscape and Urban Planning 127: 124-135.
• Nall, C. M. (2015). “The Political Consequences of Spatial Policies: How Interstate Highways Facilitated Geographic Polarization.” The Journal of Politics 77(2): 394-406.
• Pacific Energy Center (2006). Guide to California Climate Zones and Bioclimatic Design. Retrieved from  https://www.pge.com/includes/docs/pdfs/about/edusafety/training/pec/toolbox/arch/climate/california_climate_zones_01-16.pdf . 
• PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University (2012). 1981-2010 Normals. Retrieved from  https://prism.oregonstate.edu/normals/ .
• Roderick, K. (2001). The San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb. Angel City Press.
• U.S. Census Bureau. 2020 Decennial Census P.L. 94-171 Redistricting Data (2021). Retrieved for California from  https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/about/rdo/summary-files.html . American Community Survey 2015-2019 (2020). Retrieved for California from  https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/summary_file/2019/data/5_year_by_state .
• Wachs, M., Chesney, P. S. and Y. H. Hwang (2020). A Century of Fighting Traffic Congestion in Los Angeles: 1920-2020. UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Retrieved from  https://luskincenter.history.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/66/2020/10/A-Century-of-Fighting-Traffic-Congestion-in-LA.pdf .
• Wheeler, J. O. (1971). “Social Interaction and Urban Space.” Journal of Geography 70(4): 200-203.

• EMC Research (2021). Recent Findings from California East San Fernando Valley Voter Survey.
• West Los Angeles Influence Over the San Fernando Valley.
• The Sepulveda Transit Corridor: The Need to Connect the San Fernando Valley and Centers in Los Angeles.