Valencia's Population: Past and Present (Chptr 3-4)

In 1848 gold was found in California and the gold rush, bringing people to the west started. Less than three years after this discovery California had a big enough population to be declared a state. In the 19o0's the expansion of irrigation in the west allowed California to produce the fruits and vegetables for a national market.

A westward movement experienced an all time high when young GI's and their brides flocked west for new opportunities and plenty of sunshine. A lot of them were shipped off from California to Pearl Harbour and then moved out here after the war. Of course the company that owned half of the land in the valley wanted in on the action. Valencia was planned in the 1960's by the Newhall Land and Farming Company. Athol McBean was the owner of this company, thus what is now one of the main roads in Valencia called McBean Parkway. But there were several other things happening that made it possible for this community to thrive. In 1960 a state bond was passed to bring state water south from Feather River. The Castaic Lake Water Agency was formed to become a part of this state water project and this ensured a water source for the valley. And in 1965 governor Pat Brown made it more accessible by replacing the old 99 highway with a new interstate. The picture below is a 1963 rendering of Town Center

which started construction in 1992.

The population of just the city of Valencia is 10, 937. With a growth of 38.4% and a density of 385 people per square mile. The percent of this that is male is 50.7%, and female is 49.3%. The percent of families w/kids is 26.9%, married couples 66.3%, and 33.8% of the population is single. The recent job growth is 3.2% and the future job growth is 202.4%. These statistics are based on the neighborhood profile on the yahoo real estate website.

Another interesting find on this website is the number of students attending the schools in this area. These numbers are based on the individual school websites from April 2007.

California Institute of the Arts has 1242 students attending, The Master's College has 1,000, College of the Canyons is at 16,504 students. And our California State University, Northridge has a total of 33,243 students.

Physical Features and Natural Disasters (Chptr. 2)

Valencia is located in Santa Clarita which is a union of several surrounding communities including Saugus, Newhall, and Canyon Country. The boundaries of this area is the Golden State Freeway and the Antelope Valley Freeway, with a merger in Newhall Pass in the southernmost corner giving it it's triangular shape on the map. The weather is pretty moderate although it is a little more extreme than being right on the coast. All the research I have done shows the average temperatures as low as 36 with a high of 64 in January, getting up to as high as 95 in August with a low of 55. I am sorry, I live here and it seems like it gets hotter than95 but the highest temperature recorded was 113 in 1971. We have had temps in the low 100's during the months of July and August. Valencia is in the Mediterranean climatic region and usually the hottest month is August and the coolest month is January. Most of the rainfall which averages 15-18 inches falls between November and March.

Valencia is in the Western mountains, plateaus, and valleys landforms region of the United States. The coastal mountain are in the contact zone between two earth plates. The Pacific plate is moving North against the North American plate causing earthquakes. This movement of earth along these breaks are called fault lines and California is loaded with them. The one through Valencia, and one of the major one's is called the San Andreas Fault. The first earthquake I felt out here was on Tuesday July 29th-it was a 5.4 on the Richter scale. It was located 2 miles southwest of Chino Hills and 8.5 miles deep. It was scary-the first real earthquake I have felt since I moved out here in 1997. Another natural disaster to worry about out here is wildfires. Last year was one of the worst years for wildfires in California. We have friends that only live a few miles from us and were evacuated from there home. Driving home one evening we just saw fires in all the mountains around us,
orange flames everywhere
-it was wild!

Introduction: Where is Valencia and Why is it there? (Chptr.1)

Valencia is located in the Northwest corner of the Santa Clarita Valley adjacent to interstate 5. Valencia is a planned community with lots of well-landscaped boulevards connecting many different residential villages. Each of these villages are close to shopping and schools. Valencia also has a system of paved pathways called paseos. These pathways make it easy to travel around Valencia while walking or riding a bike. This is one of my favorite things about where I live, I am very close to a great system of paseos that I can go walking on and not have to worry about being around traffic, they are very clean and the landscaping is kept up nicely.

Valencia was first planned by the Newhall Land and Farming Company in the 1960's and is still developing. The total population is 26, 154 with a density of 5,009 persons per square mile. The female population is 13,222 and the male is 12,933. The median age is 33-34 years old the average family size is 3.7. All in all is sounds like a great place to live. Valencia is a nice city to live in as a family and is an easy way to still live near the big city, "Los Angeles", but be able to afford

a home and not worry about sending your kids to public schools. This is why we moved here and this is why it was voted as one of the top 100 places to live by Money magazine in 2006.

Valencia is in Santa Clarita Valley, which is..a valley..so the weather is a little more extreme than the weather along the coast. But it is usually bright and sunny. The highest temp. in July is 94.2 and the lowest in January is 36.1 There is an average of 147 clear days out of the year and about 13.96 inches of precipitation per year. It is surrounded by the Angeles National Forest. Valencia is also home to Magic Mountain Amusement Park and Hurricane Harbor Water Park.