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.
