In 1963 the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company bought the 12,000-acre Albertson Ranch straddling the Los Angeles–Ventura county line and hired A.C. Martin & Associates to master-plan a complete “city in the country” for as many as 70,000 people. The plan was a textbook piece of 1960s new-town thinking: a man-made lake as the focal point, underground utilities, industrial and commercial zones kept apart from housing, and neighborhoods threaded with continuous greenbelts that preserved the ranch’s mature oaks. First Neighborhood was the proof of concept. Grading and construction began in 1966, before the dam that would create Westlake Lake was finished, and by 1968 the tract was essentially complete.

The design decision that defines the neighborhood is the greenbelt. Instead of every backyard butting against another backyard, landscaped paseos run behind and between the streets and connect to the community pool, the parks and White Oak Elementary. Kids walk to school through the greenbelt rather than along Lindero Canyon Road; adults walk the dog the same way. It is the reason a 1960s tract with modest lot sizes feels more open than many later neighborhoods with bigger yards.

The street names carry the theme the planners chose for the whole village: Kingspark, Hartfield, Beaconsfield, Regents, Abbington, Sevenoaks, Yorkfield, Henley, Guildhall, Kentfield, Knightsgate, Coolhaven, Watergate. In 1981, when the Los Angeles County side of the development incorporated as the City of Westlake Village, First Neighborhood became part of the new city; the tract has always been on the Los Angeles County side of the line.

In the MLS the tract is listed as “Colony Park / 1st Neighborhood,” and the original plans on file with the Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of Realtors carry tree names: the Aspen, Cypress, Oak, Redwood, Spruce and Willow, plus two numbered plans, 202 and 203, whose brochure pages survive with the builder’s feature list. The drawings are reproduced below. They are 1960s marketing plans drawn with the landscaping, patios and pools shown in place, which is itself a clue to how the neighborhood was conceived: each house was designed around a series of outdoor courts (an entry court, a family court, a play court, a “health court”) rather than a single back yard.

Four of the six named plans are single-level. That is unusual for Westlake Village, where later tracts went almost entirely two-story, and it is the reason First Neighborhood remains the first stop for buyers who want one-level living near the lake. Sizes ran from roughly 1,750 to 2,650 square feet as built; a specific home should always be measured, since additions and second-story expansions are common here after sixty years.

Drawings on file for the tract. Other plans, elevations and options may have been offered.

Construction is mid-1960s California tract: slab foundations, stucco and wood-sided exteriors, roofs that have mostly gone to concrete tile as the original shakes were retired (the associationcomposition or (increasingly) replacement tile roofs where the original shakes have been retiredrsquo;s current rules allow only concrete tile on a re-roof, so older composition roofs are being phased out), and original aluminum windows that most owners have long since replaced. Interiors were built with separate living, dining and family rooms and galley or L-shaped kitchens; the most common renovation opens the kitchen to the family room and adds an island. Because the plans are small by today’s standards, well-designed additions are common and generally add value at close to their cost when they are permitted and match the neighborhood’s scale.

The tract fills the ground between Lindero Canyon Road and the lake on the west, the 101 on the north, Agoura Road on the south and the city’s civic center and business district to the east, with Village School Road running through the middle to White Oak Elementary. Kingspark and Hartfield are the largest streets, followed by Beaconsfield, Regents, Watergate, Abbington, Sevenoaks, Yorkfield, Henley and Foxmoor Drive. Guildhall, Kentfield, Knightsgate and Coolhaven fill in the cul-de-sacs.

The most valued positions back to the greenbelt rather than to another home, sit on a cul-de-sac, or are within a short walk of the pool and the school. Homes along Lindero Canyon Road and Agoura Road carry the most traffic noise and generally trade at a discount to interior streets. Lots are consistent, mostly 6,000 to 9,000 square feet, which keeps the tract’s pricing tight and makes comparable sales unusually reliable.

First Neighborhood is the most walkable part of Westlake Village. The Westlake Village business district and the shopping centers along Agoura Road are a few minutes on foot from the southern streets, the lake and the Landing’s restaurants are an easy walk or bike ride, and the Westlake Village Community Park, the YMCA and City Hall sit at the north edge of the tract along Thousand Oaks Boulevard. The 101 is reached via Lindero Canyon in a couple of minutes, with Woodland Hills about twenty minutes east and downtown Thousand Oaks about ten minutes west in normal traffic.

The greenbelts. Landscaped paseos run behind the streets and connect every part of the tract to the pool, the parks and White Oak Elementary, so a child can walk to school and an adult can walk the dog without crossing a through street. Homes that back onto the greenbelt have a park instead of a neighbor’s fence, and they command a measurable premium when they come up.

The location. First Neighborhood is the one Westlake Village tract from which the lake, the Landing’s restaurants, the business district, City Hall, the YMCA and the community park are all on foot, and the Lindero Canyon interchange is two minutes away. Nothing else in the city combines that walkability with single-family lots.

The single-story plans. Four of the six named Colony Park plans are one level, an unusual share for Westlake Village, and they sit on flat lots with sidewalks. For downsizers and for families who want a house that works at every age, the Aspen, Cypress, Redwood and Spruce are the reason to be here.

The schools. White Oak Elementary is in the middle of the neighborhood, and the Las Virgenes Unified feeder pattern to Lindero Canyon Middle and Agoura High follows. Buyers who specifically want Las Virgenes find that First Neighborhood is the closest such tract to the lake.

The dues and the comps. About $235 a quarter buys a heated pool, greenbelts, parks and a community center, modest next to the pool-and-greenbelt tracts across the lake, where Foxmoor runs about $230 to $240 a quarter and Village Homes about $275. And because 664 homes were built on eight plans and similar lots, a buyer or seller here works from an unusually reliable set of comparable sales.

First Neighborhood is a planned unit development: owners hold title to their lot and home, and the First Neighborhood Property Owners Association owns and maintains the greenbelts, the parks, the community center and the pool. The pool is heated from mid-April through the end of October and open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.; the community center on Village Center Road can be rented by residents year-round. Dues are billed quarterly: $235 a quarter (about $78 a month) on 2026 sales, up from about $170 a quarter in earlier listings, which is modest for what they cover. The board meets the second Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. (except August and December), and the architectural committee meets on the first and third Wednesdays under its 2022 rules.

The association keeps an office at 31830 Village Center Road, Westlake Village, CA 91361, (818) 889-0632, open weekday mornings, and it is professionally managed by Powerstone Property Management, which acquired the neighborhood’s long-time manager, The Emmons Company, in 2022; the management line is (805) 413-1170. The POA publishes a newsletter and keeps its forms, including architectural applications, online at firstneighborhood.org.

The trade-off is architectural review. Exterior changes, additions, re-roofing, tree removal and significant front-yard work go through the association’s architectural committee under recorded CC&Rs. That process is what has kept the streetscape coherent for six decades, and it is worth understanding before buying if a major project is planned. Mello-Roos does not typically appear on First Neighborhood tax bills; confirm direct assessments on the county bill for any specific parcel.

White Oak Elementary sits in the center of the tract on Village School Road, reachable by greenbelt paths from most streets, which is a large part of why young families target this neighborhood. First Neighborhood is on the Los Angeles County side of Westlake Village and is served by the Las Virgenes Unified School District: White Oak, then Lindero Canyon Middle School and Agoura High School. The Ventura County side of Westlake Village across the lake is Conejo Valley Unified, so two houses with the same city name can be in different districts. Any specific address should be verified with the district; Gary does this on every transaction.

First Neighborhood has the easiest freeway access in Westlake Village. The Lindero Canyon Road interchange with the 101 is at the tract’s northwest corner, reachable from Kingspark or Hartfield in two or three minutes without a signal-heavy arterial in between; the Westlake Boulevard (State Route 23) interchange is one exit west, where the 101 and 23 run together for about two and a half miles through Thousand Oaks, and Kanan Road is the next exit east in Agoura Hills. Off-peak, Woodland Hills is on the order of twenty minutes east, downtown Thousand Oaks about ten minutes west; in the morning and evening peaks the 101 between Calabasas and the Valley can double those figures, and residents learn to use Agoura Road as the surface-street relief valve. Agoura Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard bound the tract on the south and north, so most errands never touch the freeway at all.

Groceries are close in every direction. Vons at 2725 Agoura Road and Gelson’s at 2734 Townsgate Road are on the Ventura County side just past Westlake Boulevard; Ralphs at 3963 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard in the North Ranch Mall and Trader Joe’s at 3835 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard are a few minutes east. The Landing on Lindero Canyon Road, with its lakefront restaurants, is a walk or a bike ride from the western streets, the Westlake Village business district along Agoura Road is at the southern edge, and The Promenade at Westlake sits off Thousand Oaks Boulevard near Westlake Boulevard. The Oaks in Thousand Oaks is the full-scale mall, a short drive west on the 101. Westlake Village Community Park, the YMCA and City Hall are on Thousand Oaks Boulevard at the north edge of the tract.

Transit is a commuter’s tool rather than a daily one. LADOT’s Commuter Express 423 runs weekdays only from the Thousand Oaks Community Transportation Center park-and-ride at 265 South Rancho Road to downtown Los Angeles and USC, and it stops at Agoura Road and Lindero Canyon Road, at First Neighborhood’s doorstep, with nine morning and ten evening trips on the current schedule. The nearest Metrolink is the Ventura County Line at Moorpark (300 High Street, about 270 parking spaces), with eight weekday trains each direction at peak hours only; Simi Valley and Chatsworth stations are the other options for a train into Union Station. There is no rail within the city, and most households treat the car as the default.

Malibu is the other direction. Kanan Dume Road runs 19 miles from the 101 in Agoura Hills through three tunnels to Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, on the order of half an hour off-peak, and Decker Canyon (Highway 23 south from Westlake Boulevard) is the narrower, slower alternative that lands farther up the coast. The school run is the neighborhood’s quiet advantage: White Oak Elementary is reached on foot through the greenbelts, so the tract escapes the drop-off queues that clog other Westlake Village streets, while Lindero Canyon Middle and Agoura High are short drives north across the 101 in Agoura Hills.

The figures in this section were current when this guide was last reviewed. The sale record in the facts above and the listings below are drawn live from the MLS each time the page loads.

In the two years through September 2026, 24 homes in the tract sold through the MLS, at prices from $1,215,000 to $3,000,000 and a median of $1,765,000, about $708 per square foot. Original-condition homes sit at the low end of that range, and large, fully renovated or expanded homes on greenbelt or cul-de-sac lots at the top. A handful of sales have gone higher, including a rebuilt home that closed near $3 million. On a per-square-foot basis the tract trades at a premium to most of Westlake Village because the homes are small and the location is strong; renovated homes often clear $800 a square foot.

The tract turns over steadily, on the order of a dozen MLS sales a year (24 in the last two years), and single-story homes and greenbelt lots draw multiple offers when they are priced correctly. In March 2022 Gary Jacobs’s sale of 4500 Knightsgate Road at $1,820,000 set the tract’s price record and its price-per-square-foot record; both have since been surpassed, which tells you where the neighborhood has gone.

Figures are drawn from Los Angeles County public records and MLS closings and are rounded. They are a snapshot, not a valuation; contact Gary for a current read on any specific property.

First Neighborhood is an owner-occupied tract, and leases are the exception rather than the rule: in a September 2026 check of the public rental sites, only two or three of the thirty-odd houses offered for lease in the 91361 ZIP code were inside the tract, which is consistent with a handful of new leases a year across 664 homes. What does come to market is priced by size and condition rather than by street. Recent asking rents were $7,200 a month for a four-bedroom, two-bath single-story of about 1,895 square feet on Kingspark Court, $6,500 for a five-bedroom, three-bath two-story of about 2,409 square feet on Henley Court, and $7,000 for a four-bedroom of about 2,645 square feet on Beaconsfield Court. Earlier listings on Kingspark and Guildhall Courts, since leased, asked about $5,500 for remodeled homes of 1,950 to 2,500 square feet, so a landlord pricing today should expect a range from the mid-$5,000s to a little over $7,000 depending on updates, a pool and whether the home is single-level. Furnished houses are rare here; nearly everything leases unfurnished, and the listings that move fastest include the gardener and the pool service in the rent.

The association’s rules matter for both sides of a lease. The First Neighborhood rules and regulations booklet (March 2023) provides that no lot or home may be leased except in writing and for a minimum term of thirty days, that homes may not be used for transient or hotel purposes, and that a lease must cover the whole house (or a permitted accessory unit) rather than a single room or a garage. Owners remain responsible to the association for their tenants and must hold the association harmless for tenant-related claims, so a landlord should hand the tenant the rules booklet with the keys. The booklet does not write separate rules for tenants: pool fobs come from the community center office against a deposit, and the parking and recreational-vehicle rules (no trailers, boats or campers on the street beyond 48 hours for loading) apply to renters exactly as they do to owners.

On the practical side, California now caps most residential security deposits at one month’s rent, with a narrow exception for small landlords, and the current rule should be confirmed before a lease is drawn. Demand comes from three directions: families who want White Oak Elementary and Las Virgenes Unified for a year or two while they shop to buy, relocating employees at Amgen’s Thousand Oaks headquarters and the smaller technology and financial firms along the 101 corridor, and owners in the middle of a remodel elsewhere in Westlake Village. Gary Jacobs has leased homes in the tract, including on Guildhall Court, for owners who chose to hold rather than sell, and can show what comparable First Neighborhood homes actually leased for rather than what they asked.

The tract was built in 1966, 1967 and 1968, so any home that has not been systematically updated is approaching sixty years on its original systems. The items below are common in Westlake Village homes of this era; each house varies, many have been fully redone, and only a licensed inspector, with a sewer camera and an electrician where warranted, can say what is true of a specific address.

Plumbing is the first place to look. The original Colony Park brochure for the later plans advertised copper supply lines, but earlier phases and individual houses may still carry galvanized steel that has narrowed with corrosion; low pressure at the farthest fixture is the tell. Drain lines of the period were cast iron or early ABS, and the sewer lateral to the street is original on many homes; a camera inspection of the lateral is routine here and worth its cost. Water heaters, angle stops and supply lines under sinks are frequently replaced items, and an inspector will note whether the main shut-off valve works.

Electrical panels deserve a specific question. Zinsco and Federal Pacific panels were installed in American homes from the 1950s into the 1980s, and both brands have documented failure modes: breakers that do not trip, or that read off while still carrying current. Where an original panel survives in First Neighborhood, most buyers negotiate its replacement or price it in. Some late-1960s houses in the region also have aluminum branch wiring on 15- and 20-amp circuits, which is manageable with proper connectors but should be identified. Original aluminum-frame single-pane sliders and windows are still present in some homes and are easy to spot; replaced windows are one of the first things a renovated listing here advertises.

Roofs and attics carry the era’s other stories. The homes were built with cedar shake roofs, and the association’s current architectural rules allow only concrete or lightweight concrete tile for re-roofing, so a buyer should ask when the roof was last replaced and whether the framing was checked for the added weight of tile. Heating and air conditioning in these plans usually runs through ducts in the attic; original or second-generation ducting, thin tract-era insulation, and equipment nearing the end of its life are typical findings. The tract sits on flat ground, so hillside drainage and retaining walls are not the concern they are in the hill tracts, but slab foundations of this age can show hairline cracks and moisture at floor coverings, and greenbelt-adjacent lots should be checked for grading that sends the association’s irrigation toward the house. Pools are common and many are original shells with several generations of equipment; an inspector will date the pump, heater and filter separately from the plaster.

Finally, additions. Because the plans are small and the neighborhood is sixty years old, a large share of homes have been expanded, and the association’s architectural file and Los Angeles County building permits do not always tell the same story. A buyer should pull both for any second story, room addition or garage conversion, and treat unpermitted square footage as unpermitted in the price.

The Colony Park plans were drawn with separate living, dining and family rooms and enclosed kitchens, so the renovation that shows up most often in the sales record is the simplest one: open the kitchen to the family room, add an island, and run the flooring through. On the single-story plans (the Aspen, Cypress, Redwood and Spruce) that one change turns a 1966 floor plan into what buyers in 2026 expect, and it is the reason a remodeled single-level here can clear $800 a square foot while an original one trades far below it. The Cypress and Oak, with bedrooms strung along one side, lend themselves to combining two small bedrooms into a primary suite with a real closet and bath; the Redwood’s interior court is sometimes enclosed to gain floor area and light at the same time.

Second stories are allowed but governed. The association’s 2022 architectural rules permit a second story over the existing footprint up to the height of the existing ridge or 22 feet, whichever is lower, with single-story additions confined to the original footprint’s setbacks: 15 feet at the rear for one story, 20 feet for two stories next to another home, and a case-by-case review for lots backing the greenbelt. An owner must stand a story pole with orange tape at the proposed height for a three-week review period, and the committee, which generally meets the first and third Wednesday of each month, wants complete plans before the clock starts. Pop-tops on the single-story plans are seen throughout the tract, and the ones that sell best keep the original roofline on the street side and put the new mass at the rear.

Accessory dwelling units are where state law and the CC&Rs meet. California Civil Code section 4751 makes any association rule that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts an ADU or junior ADU on a single-family lot void, and First Neighborhood’s rules say as much: one accessory dwelling unit or junior ADU per lot is permitted to the extent the law requires. The City of Westlake Village approves ADUs by right through a zoning clearance, with the building permit issued by Los Angeles County. On lots of 6,000 to 9,000 square feet, a detached unit of up to 1,200 square feet is rarely practical once the house, the pool and the setbacks are accounted for; the realistic paths are a junior ADU of up to 500 square feet carved out of the house, or a converted or rebuilt garage. Either should be designed with an eye to the association’s rules on exterior materials, tile roofs and the 6-foot wall limit, which still apply.

The sales record is unambiguous on the return. In this tract original-condition homes have sold from about $1.3 million while fully renovated homes of similar size have closed near $2 million and above, a spread that comfortably exceeds the cost of a good kitchen, baths, windows and flooring. Gary Jacobs’s own example is the cleanest: 4500 Knightsgate Road, bought in September 2021 for $1,549,000, renovated and resold in March 2022 for $1,820,000 in three days. The caution is over-building: a 3,500-square-foot house on a 7,000-square-foot lot can look out of scale with the street, and the record suggests buyers pay for finish and flow long before they pay for size.

The closest comparison is Foxmoor, across the lake on the Ventura County side: built in 1968 and 1969 by the same master developer, about 270 homes on lots with a median near 6,970 square feet, an elementary school (Westlake) inside the tract, a greenbelt, a clubhouse and a pool, and dues of about $230 to $240 a quarter. Foxmoor’s 2024–2026 median was about $1.55 million against First Neighborhood’s roughly $1.77 million, and it trades at about $600 to $650 a square foot where First Neighborhood’s renovated homes reach $800; the difference is the walk to the lake and the business district, the four single-level plans, and, for some buyers, the Las Virgenes versus Conejo Valley Unified school assignment. Foxmoor is in the City of Thousand Oaks; First Neighborhood is in the City of Westlake Village.

Village Homes, along Triunfo Canyon Road, is the other single-story-heavy 1969–1978 tract, with about 654 homes, lots near 7,400 square feet, a pool, spa, clubhouse and tennis, and dues of about $275 a quarter. Its median of roughly $1.46 million is the lowest of the four, which makes it the value alternative for a one-level buyer who does not need to be within walking distance of the lake and who is comfortable with Conejo Valley Unified. Three Springs, in the hills south of the lake, is the Las Virgenes Unified alternative for a buyer who wants more house: 1988–1990 construction, 2,800 to 4,300 square feet on lots with a median of about 14,000 square feet, dues of roughly $270 a year, and a median around $2.15 million. Its price per foot is lower than First Neighborhood’s, its lots are twice the size, and it has no pool or greenbelt system.

Westlake Island is the aspirational neighbor: every lot is waterfront, the bridge is guard-gated, the homes date from 1967 to 1981 with many rebuilt, and 2024–2026 closings ran from about $1.45 million to $8 million with a median near $3.05 million and combined association dues around $850 a quarter. First Neighborhood buyers who want the lake without the island premium tend to settle for a greenbelt lot and a five-minute walk to the Landing. The short version: First Neighborhood costs more per square foot than Foxmoor, Village Homes and Three Springs and far less than the Island, and it is the only one of the five with both Las Virgenes schools and an elementary school inside the tract.

The houses are from 1966 to 1968. An original-condition home may still have galvanized supply lines, an aluminum-window package, a Zinsco or Federal Pacific panel, an original sewer lateral and attic ducting from the Johnson administration. None of this is unusual for the era, but a buyer paying a premium per square foot should budget for systems on any home sold as original and should insist on a sewer camera.

The lots are modest. At 6,000 to 9,000 square feet a pool fits, but a pool, a lawn, a large addition and a detached accessory unit generally do not all fit at once. Buyers who need a half-acre should look at Three Springs or the hillside tracts.

Architectural review is real. The association approves every exterior change in writing, allows only concrete tile for re-roofing, caps second stories at the existing ridge or 22 feet, requires a story pole for three weeks, and fines escalate to $500 per notice. That process is why the streets still look coherent, and it is a constraint for an owner planning a major project.

The edges are louder. Homes along Lindero Canyon Road, Agoura Road and nearest the 101 hear traffic, and they trade at a discount to the interior cul-de-sacs for that reason. The greenbelt itself brings foot traffic behind the fence, which most owners regard as the point and a few do not.

Competition for the best homes. Single-story plans on greenbelt or cul-de-sac lots draw multiple offers when priced correctly, and a buyer who needs one level should be pre-approved and ready before the right one appears.

Families targeting White Oak Elementary and Las Virgenes Unified. The walk to school through the greenbelt is the single most cited reason buyers give for choosing First Neighborhood over the Ventura County side of the lake, and the Lindero Canyon and Agoura High feeder pattern follows.

One-level buyers and downsizers. Owners leaving larger two-story homes in North Ranch, Three Springs or the hill tracts who want to stay in Westlake Village, walk to dinner at the Landing and keep a pool without paying island or gated-community dues land on the Aspen, Cypress, Redwood and Spruce plans.

Renovators. Because the plans are sound, the comps are deep and the spread between original and renovated homes is wide, First Neighborhood is where investors and owner-occupants alike buy an original house, open the kitchen, replace the windows and roof and either stay or resell. Gary Jacobs’s Knightsgate sale is the template.

Lake-adjacent buyers on a budget. People who want to be able to walk to Westlake Lake but are not prepared for Westlake Island prices choose a greenbelt lot here instead.

Buyers who should probably look elsewhere: those who need a large lot, a dock, a guard gate or a house of more than about 3,000 square feet without an addition. For them, Westlake Island, Three Springs or the North Ranch tracts are better fits.

4500 Knightsgate Road is the sale Gary Jacobs gets asked about most. He purchased it in September 2021 for $1,549,000, took it through a full renovation, and sold it in March 2022 for $1,820,000 after three days on the market, a record for the tract at the time. The same month he sold 31720 Kentfield Court, a 1,737 square foot single-story on a cul-de-sac, for $1,640,000, which shows what the single-level plans command here. He has also leased homes on Guildhall Court and elsewhere in the tract for owners who wanted to hold rather than sell. For an owner weighing a renovation before selling, Gary can show exactly what Knightsgate cost and what it returned.

Buyers: decide early whether single-story is a requirement; those homes draw the most competition and go fast. Walk the greenbelt behind any house you are considering, at different times of day. Pull the association’s architectural file for any addition. Budget for 1960s items that may still be original: sewer lateral, galvanized supply lines, electrical panel.

Sellers: buyers here are comparing against a deep, consistent set of comps, so pricing to the tract’s ladder (original, updated, fully renovated) matters more than in most neighborhoods. Kitchen-to-family-room openings, replaced windows and a clean roof report move the needle most. Present the greenbelt and the pool as part of the property; they are.