Who we are...  Where we came from...

The Old Granada Hills Residents' Group (OGHRG) is a truly grassroots neighborhood organization that has developed from our common desires to maintain and improve the quality of life for those living in the "Old Granada Hills" area.

In order to know what residents are feeling about our unique neighborhood character, and discovering the areas that we want most to improve upon, one of the techniques we have used is surveys. From April to June of 2001, we door-to-door surveyed 2,000 households. Our goals are based on the responses we have received from the questionnaires, as well as from input from our members at our meetings, both on the General and Committee levels. In May 2002, we again surveyed our area with over 1,800 surveys with our May newsletter and at our booth at the GH Street Faire.  Significant input is also received verbally at our meetings and through our committee activities.  As with all are surveys, we protect the anonymity and privacy of our members to the fullest
extent.

Our first General Meeting was on July 17, 2001 in which nearly 150 residents attended. Our meetings are monthly, and may take different forms depending on the topics. The first part of our meetings often consists of various community leaders and residents informing our members of activities that affect our neighborhood. Some of these speakers and their topics have been crime prevention, zoning and density issues, Neighborhood Councils, business improvement projects, and Valley secession.

Our meetings also consist of dividing into work groups in order to help accomplish our goals. If an issue or topic arises in our community that requires action on our part to influence the final decision, we can form a committee to tackle the problem and make our voices heard to the decision-makers. Most of our committees have also met outside of our monthly General Meetings, usually at a resident's home, and given a short summary of their work at the next monthly meeting. Their proposals are then approved or denied by our Board of Directors and/or the general assembly of residents.

On July 13, 2002 we instated our first annual Potluck Party where more than 80 residents engaged in lively conversations, sampling potluck delights and generally enjoying the comradery needed to meet our neighbors and to bring the neighborhood together.

In October 2002 we incorporated as a non-profit organization whit the primary objectives and purposes to be “To promote and maintain the quality of life in Granada Hills through education, research, charity and public forums.”
Occasionally, our meetings will take the form of a forum as with our Debate on Valley Secession in which we had over 225 individuals attending. The last 45 minutes of that debate was a public question and answer period which was very informative as well as entertaining. Media publicity was very good - L.A. Times, Daily News, Channel 9 TV and were second story on Channel 2 News (the Lakers playoff victory was the lead). We also sponsored a "Meet the Candidates Night" in October 2002, in which 8 of 10 mayoral candidates and 9 of 10 SFV Council #1 candidates participated. On February 23, 2003, we sponsored a Candidate Forum for the all the Council District #12 contenders. This event was televised on public access TV, as well as local TV and the print media.

Before the existence of our group, there were no homeowners' or residents' groups in action in our neighborhood. As a result, we:

1) often had little or no influence on what happen to our community; or

2) sometimes did not even know what was happening until a decision was made and we read about it the newspaper after the fact; or

3) scrambled at the last minute to fight an issue.

We, as residents of Old Granada Hills, now have an organization established to give us greater influence with our elected officials, public servants and other decision makers in order to maintain and improve our quality of life here in our unique neighborhood. We also establish relationships with other community groups and neighborhood organizations that share our common ideals so that we may increase our sphere of influence. Our boundaries are defined as by:

Our Mission

To protect, preserve, and improve the quality of life in Old Granada Hills.
To preserve the privacy and individualism of the citizens and their homes.
To preserve the low population density as was intended in the city plan.
To promote community pride and neighborliness.
To educate and inform about the history of Old Granada Hills.
To make homeowners aware of the real property uniqueness of the region.
To provide a non-invasive and independent network to attain common goals.
To reach out to other communities and groups who share out goals and ideals.
To help each other out in times of need.