The City of Los Angeles Board of Neighborhood Commissioners certified the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council (#68) at its meeting on April 29, 2003. Below is the text portion of our certification application.

• Section 1. Boundaries and Area Profile
• Section 2. Neighborhood Outreach
• Section 3. Organizational Structure
• Section 4. Financial Accountability
  
  
• Attachment 2. Partial List of Community Organizations
• Attachment A. Public Notice Location Log
• Attachment C. Contact Liaison Roster

Neighborhood Council Name
Chatsworth Neighborhood Council

Section 1. Boundaries and Area Profile

1. The Chatsworth Neighborhood Council ("CNC") boundaries are proposed as follows:

1. The Northern line shall be from the most northwesterly point of the Los Angeles City / Los Angeles County boundary at SR-118 east along said boundary to Browns Canyon, then south to SR-118, then east to Corbin Avenue.
2. The Eastern line shall be centerline of Corbin Avenue from SR-118 to Nordhoff Street.
3. The Southern line shall be the centerline of Nordhoff Street from Corbin Avenue west to its termination, thence continuing in a straight line to the Los Angeles City / Los Angeles County boundary.
4. The Western line shall be the western Los Angeles City limit from the extended centerline of Nordhoff Street north to SR-118.

2. Please see the map in Attachment 1.

3. The community of Chatsworth actually extends beyond the boundaries proposed for the CNC. However, we considered the following in selecting our boundaries:

1. The northwest corner of Chatsworth includes unincorporated area within Los Angeles County but outside the City limits. Although we have many active community members living there, we were advised that such area is not eligible for inclusion.
2. The areas south of the extended line of Nordhoff Street are included within the territories of the West Hills and Canoga Park Neighborhood Councils, both already certified. We preferred to avoid a dispute with our adjoining councils, so we set our southern boundary to correspond with their respective northern boundaries.
3. Above SR-118, Chatsworth extends east to include an area that is being developed as part of the Porter Ranch project. We understand that there is a nascent movement within Porter Ranch to form its own council, and it is likely that at least some of the residents and businesses there will identify more with Porter Ranch than they will with Chatsworth. In order to minimize the potential for future conflict and to avoid possible interference with the formation efforts in Porter Ranch, we have excluded this area.
4. South of SR-118, Chatsworth extends a few blocks east of Corbin Avenue. However, the Northridge Community Council, now in the formative stage, has proposed Corbin Avenue as its western boundary. In order to avoid future disputes, and because Corbin Avenue is used as a dividing line for census tract data, we chose it as CNC's eastern boundary.

4. No

5. Not applicable

6. Not applicable

7. Not applicable

8. Yes

9. Not applicable

10. The CNC area includes ~ 38,000 residents, according to the 2000 census.

11. Community Profile

History

Chatsworth is a 114-year-old community in the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley. Nestled up against the Simi Hills and the Santa Susana Mountains at the foot of the Santa Susana Pass, it is the gateway to the Simi Valley and the northwest entrance to the San Fernando Valley.

Chatsworth has a long, colorful history beginning with prehistoric man who came to the area to perform ceremonial rituals. Later, the Tongva and Chumash Tribes had villages in the area; today their petroglyphs can be found in our hills. Sheep and cattle were sent to the Chatsworth area to graze after the San Fernando Mission was established. The mail was carried between the San Fernando and San Buenaventura Missions by way of the Santa Susana Pass in 1804. Stagecoaches carried passengers from Los Angeles to San Louis Obispo over the steep and dangerous pass from 1858-1890.

Ann and Niels Johnson, the first American settlers in the San Fernando Valley, homesteaded in Chatsworth in 1871. The Chatsworth Historical Society has helped preserve their home, Hill-Palmer House, named to the National Register of Historic Places. Civilization came to Chatsworth over the next 20 years. In 1888 Chatsworth Park Elementary School was built and, on March 10 of that same year, the first sub-division map of a town called Chatsworth Park was filed with the Los Angeles County Recorder's Office. That is the date the community observes as Chatsworth's birthday. The name is thought to have come from the Duke of Devonshire's palatial estate in England. The word "Park" was later dropped from the name and the community became known simply as Chatsworth. Although begun as an agricultural town with family farms, construction of a train station in 1893 and the world's longest hand-dug train tunnel in 1894 made Chatsworth a railroad town as well. Our community survived the great Depression, providing food for many transients during that time, and then housed soldiers during World War II.

Geologic forces, fires, floods and earthquakes have helped form Chatsworth's unique topography. The film industry made the Chatsworth landscape familiar to the public through the many westerns shot in the rock-strewn hills. The Pioneer Church, built in 1903, has been preserved as a Los Angeles Cultural Historic Monument and now stands at the northwest corner of Oakwood Memorial Park. The new 760-acre Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park was dedicated in 1998, assuring that much of the natural beauty and history of the area will be preserved and available for the enjoyment of the public.

Population

From its beginnings as a small agricultural town and stagecoach rest stop, Chatsworth grew most rapidly during the post WWII years. In 2000, Chatsworth (using the 91311 Zip Code area as a proxy for the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council Area) had a population of 35,317. Chatsworth has a significantly higher median age than Los Angeles as a whole (39.7 years vs. 31.4 years) which is also reflected in the larger proportion of the population that was age 65 and above (13.0% vs. 9.7%) and lower proportion under age 18 (22.5% vs. 26.6%).

In contrast to Los Angeles, Chatsworth residents age 15 and over are more often married (55.9% vs. 46.0%), widowed (6.0% vs. 5.2%) and divorced (10.1% vs. 8.2%), and less often single (26.0% vs. 37.3%) and separated (2.0% vs. 3.3%).

Racial / Ethnic Structure

For people reporting one race (95.8%): 73.8% were White alone, 3.0% were African American, and 14.2 % were Asian. The remaining 4.2% listed 2 or more races. In comparison to Los Angeles as a whole, Chatsworth has higher proportions of White (73.8% vs. 62%) and Asian (14.2% vs. 10.0%) and a lower proportion of Black (3.0% vs. 11.2%). While 46.5% of the L. A. population considers itself of Hispanic heritage, only 13.6 % of Chatsworth does so. Sixty-six percent of the people in Chatsworth were White non-Hispanic versus only thirty percent of Los Angeles. (People of Hispanic origin can be any race.)

Household and Families

In 2000 there were 13,221 households in Chatsworth. Both average household and family sizes are smaller in Chatsworth than in L. A. as a whole (2.61 vs. 2.83 and 3.09 vs. 3.56, respectively). Families made-up 70.1% of the households in Chatsworth versus only 62.6% in Los Angeles; and Chatsworth had fewer households with children under age 18 (34.1% vs. 37.6%) and more households with individuals over age 65 (23.3% vs. 20.6%).

Nativity and Language

Chatsworth residents were more likely to be born in the United States than the population of Los Angeles as a whole (74.7% vs. 58.9%) but were less likely to be a native Californian (46.5 vs. 68.9%). Of those foreign born, even fewer have remained non-citizens than in Los Angeles (43.2% vs. 65.6%).

Chatsworth residents age five and above are much less likely to speak a language other than English at home (33.0% vs. 59.4%). Chatsworth also has only a third as many individuals age five and above whom speak English less than "very well" (12.4% vs. 31.6%) than in Los Angeles as a whole. (See additional detail at the end of Section 2.)

Education Structure

In 2000 Chatsworth had a much higher level of educational attainment than Los Angeles overall. Of the population age 25 and above, 89.2% vs. 67.6% were high school graduates or above and 34.5% vs. 26.8% had at least a bachelor's degree. Graduate or professional degrees were held by 11.6% of Chatsworth residents versus 9% of Los Angeles residents overall.

Economic profile

Occupational Industrial Structure

Chatsworth's higher level of educational attainment is also reflected in the occupational structure of civilian employed residents age 16 and above. A much higher proportion of workers is in Professional and only half as many workers are in Service and Production occupations compared with Los Angeles as a whole.

The Industry and Class of Worker (private wage, government, self-employed) structures for Chatsworth were only slightly different than that of all of Los Angeles workers. In 2000 Chatsworth residents did have lower unemployment rates than L. A. residents: (3.4% vs. 8.1%).

Employed Civilian Population Age 16 and Over: 2000

Income / Poverty Structure

The median 1999 income of households in Chatsworth was $62,270, nearly double that of Los Angeles households ($35,955). For families there was an even wider differential; median family 1999 income of $71,189 was reported versus $38,955 for all of L. A. Chatsworth had substantially lower poverty rates than Los Angeles: percent of Families (3.8% vs. 18.3%), Families with Female Head of Household (9.9% vs. 32.7%), Individuals (5.5% vs. 22.1%), Individuals over Age 65 (8.4% vs. 12.6%) and Children under 18 (5.4% vs. 30.3%) classified as poor.

Housing

In 2000 Chatsworth had 13,489 housing units, 70.3% of which are single unit structures (versus 45.3% for L. A.), and only 25.2% were in multi-unit structures, less than half of what is found in Los Angeles (54%). While the proportion of dwelling units built during the 1990's is similar (5.9% vs. 5.8%), the proportion built before 1950 is only 3.1% versus almost a third (31.7%) for all of Los Angeles. While in Chatsworth almost 70% (69.1%) of the housing is owned by the tenant and 30% is renter-occupied (30.9%) in Los Angeles the reverse is true, with only 38.4% owning their dwelling units and nearly 61.6% renting.

Commercial and employment profile

Chatsworth is home to nearly 2,000 businesses. Over half of these have fewer than 10 employees and over 90% have fewer than 50. Four companies have more than 500 employees. The most common industry classification for Chatsworth enterprises is manufacturing; our community is particularly known for its strong presence in the technology sector. Other industries with significant representation include wholesale trade, professional and technical services, construction, and retail trade. Chatsworth businesses employ approximately 40,000 people.

Community involvement

Our stakeholders invest considerable time and effort to preserve what we have and to improve what we can, as evidenced by the large number of active community organizations (see Attachment 2 for a partial listing). Many of the issues that affect our quality of life and the quality of what we offer to our visitors involve the actions of City departments and elected officials. We intend to use CNC as a vehicle to facilitate communication in both directions between City government and Chatsworth stakeholders. Our standing as a certified neighborhood council will also provide additional opportunities to exchange views and ideas on regional issues with stakeholders in adjoining communities.

Section 2. Neighborhood Outreach

1. CNC's organizing efforts, which commenced in the closing months of 2001, began with identification of stakeholder classes and consideration of how best to reach them. We involved the leaders of numerous community organizations including business, educational, recreational, residential, historical and environmental groups. The collective experience of these leaders in contacting, growing and working with their respective memberships was used to assist our efforts. We also obtained demographic information about those living in our community in order that we not overlook any significant segment of the population in our outreach activities.

2. Since early in its formative period, CNC has made an effort to reach a large number and diverse range of community members. Our methods have included personal contact, announcements at public meetings, postings at heavily visited public and commercial locations and Internet web sites, and the distribution of over 15,000 flyers. We have personally visited schools, senior assisted-living facilities, Chamber of Commerce meetings, and a unique resource, the Chatsworth Community Coordinating Council, where representatives of nearly fifty religious, youth, environmental, educational, cultural and service organizations meet each month to share information. Here are some specific examples of outreach activities:

a) Prior to CNC's April and May 2002 general meetings, we contacted management of popular retail establishments and obtained their cooperation in distributing over 4,000 full-page meeting announcements. These establishments include Rite-Aid Drug Store & Pharmacy, Vons and Ralph's Markets, Denny's Restaurant and Carrows Restaurant. The announcements included two contact names and telephone numbers so that even those unable to attend could get more information about CNC. Distribution methods included placing flyers into grocery bags at checkout and display in waiting areas and at cash registers. We also encouraged management and employees of these establishments to attend. We continue to use several of these locations as posting points for announcements of CNC meetings.

b) We met with the administrators of two senior assisted-living facilities to discuss ways CNC might benefit their residents and employees. We offered to arrange carpools to drive seniors who needed help getting to the meeting.

c) We made a public announcement at a meeting of over 100 homeowners gathered to discuss a local development issue. Representatives of several local equestrian groups were also present at this meeting.

d) We posted notices of our general meetings on the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce web site and have had in attendance the chamber's president and past president (who is also president of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley).

e) Prior to our June meeting we distributed roughly 8,000 flyers announcing the meeting in both English and in Spanish. We arranged through LAUSD and the principals of our local public schools to have these flyers sent home with every student at Chatsworth Park Elementary School, Germain Street Elementary School, Lawrence Middle School and Chatsworth High School prior to the meeting date. As always, contact information was included for those unable to attend. We encouraged the faculty and staff of these schools to attend as well.

The student bodies at the four above-mentioned schools include the following ethnicities:

40.5% Hispanic, 33.3% White, 13.4% Asian, 8.2% Black, 3.6% Filipino, 0.7 % Alaskan and 0.2% Pacific Islander.

Assuming at least one adult or older / younger child for each student, our school flyers alone should have reached a substantial portion of both Hispanic and Black community members as well as lower-income families.

We believe that the overall coverage resulting from these efforts meets both the City's and CNC's outreach objectives. We have reached homeowners and renters, seniors, businesses and their employees, public and private schools, resident and boarding equestrians, and families of many ethnicities and economic circumstances.

3. CNC volunteers have spent 20 or more hours per month for the last year in outreach activities.

4. We have held public meetings nearly every month and, in addition to discussing organizational matters, have had numerous guest speakers to help attract attendees. Attendance has ranged from 20 to 45 people. These meetings were productive in several regards. They allowed us to identify skilled and interested volunteers willing to participate in formation activities, ongoing committee activities or both. They provided a forum to discuss some of the more controversial elements of the recommended bylaws and procedures and reach a consensus to be reflected on our application for certification. Our meetings have also become a place to get updates on local development and safety issues and information about upcoming community events.

5. Attachments 3 through 5 contain computerized lists of individuals who have signed CNC's Petition for Certification, sorted by name, by street and by sequence on original signature pages. Each such list includes a cross-reference to a specific page and line of Attachment 6, the original signature pages supporting our application. In addition to homeowners and other residents, our petitioners include 30 business owners and 33 employees, for a total business representation of nearly 30%.

6. The first and most important method of collecting signatures was to pass the sheets at CNC public meetings. Here stakeholders had the opportunity to observe the formation process and ask questions about it. Other methods included collecting signatures at meetings of community organizations, at public hearings, and door-to-door. We generally did not post collectors at retail establishments, as the opportunity for meaningful explanation of CNC objectives is more limited in such venues. Our resulting list of petitioners includes homeowners, renters, business owners, employees, retirees and equestrians. It includes a variety of ethnicities and income levels.

7. As certification comes about and our focus shifts from initial outreach to ongoing communication and to participation in elections, CNC will continue utilizing all the aforementioned methods in its attempt to inform, involve and improve the Chatsworth community for all those who have a stake in its future. Toward that effort we have established a permanent Outreach Committee, leadership of which includes a professional demographer, charged with monitoring the participation in CNC and with finding additional effective ways to reach the broadest possible range of stakeholders. We are in the process of developing an Internet web site and are investigating the possibility of establishing information kiosks at key locations in order to make it easier for members of the Chatsworth community to stay informed about matters of importance.

A Demographic Note on Nativity and Language

Compared with Los Angeles residents overall, a much lower percentage of Chatsworth residents are foreign-born (25.3% vs. 41.1%) and even fewer have remained non-citizens than in Los Angeles (43.2% vs. 65.6%). Chatsworth residents age five and above are much less likely to speak a language other than English at home (33.0% vs. 59.4%). Of those not speaking English at home, languages used at home are almost evenly split between Spanish (32.4%), other Indo-European (29.0%), and Asian Languages (32.2%). In contrast, in Los Angeles, 72% not using English at home used Spanish. Chatsworth also has only a third as many individuals age five and above whom speak English less than "very well" (12.4% vs. 31.6%) than in Los Angeles as a whole. These factors have led us to conclude that the scope of our non-English outreach efforts need not be as extensive as might be required in other parts of the City.

Section 3. Organizational Structure

1. The Bylaws of CNC are included as Attachment 7.

2. The Public Notice Location Log is included as Attachment A.

Section 4. Financial Accountability

The system of financial accountability for CNC is described in Attachment B. This plan was developed by a formation committee member who is a certified public accountant (a retired partner of a worldwide accounting firm) with extensive experience in financial reporting and internal controls. It was reviewed by another CPA / stakeholder with an active practice in the San Fernando Valley.

CNC's Financial Plan not only lays out the basic procedures for approving, processing and recording financial transactions but also provides for a system of internal controls designed to minimize the risk of intentional or unintentional errors and misuse of funds. Importantly, this Plan clearly states the underlying objectives of responsible financial management in order to provide a framework for any future changes to financial processes or procedures.

Attachment 2: Partial List of Community Organizations

Attachment A: Public Notice Location Log

Posting Site #1

Posting Site #2

Posting Site #3

Posting Site #4

Posting Site #5

Note: The use of commercial establishments as notice locations is dependent on the continuing cooperation, permission and policies of the respective establishments. If permission for a location is withdrawn, an alternate site will be arranged and DONE will be notified of such change.

Attachment C: Contact Liaison Roster