Balboa Highlands Eichler homes Granada Hills sit on four streets off Balboa Boulevard: Darla Avenue, Jimeno Avenue, Lisette Street and Nanette Street. It is the only Eichler tract in Los Angeles County, 108 houses built between 1962 and 1964, and a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone since 2010. USModernist credits twenty-three of those houses directly to architect Claude Oakland. No page anywhere, including the city's own, currently lists them by address in one place. This one does.
Balboa Highlands, Claude Oakland's Eichler tract in Granada Hills
Four streets, 108 houses, and the twenty-three addresses USModernist confirms as Claude Oakland's own work, in one place for the first time.
Most people who own a house in Balboa Highlands know they own an Eichler. Fewer know which four streets the tract actually covers, and almost none know whether their specific house was one of the ones Claude Oakland drew himself. Debbie Pisaro is the architectural real estate agent California owners of Eichler homes call once they want that second question answered, and this page exists because nowhere else answers it by address.
What is Balboa Highlands?
Balboa Highlands is a 108-house tract in Granada Hills, developed by Joseph Eichler between 1962 and 1964 on four streets off Balboa Boulevard: Darla Avenue, Jimeno Avenue, Lisette Street and Nanette Street. It is the only Eichler tract in Los Angeles County. The neighborhood became a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone under Ordinance 181,088, adopted February 12, 2010, with the city's Preservation Plan following that December, making it the first post-war neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley to reach historic district status.
It carries a history worth knowing beyond the architecture. The city's own preservation plan calls Balboa Highlands's nondiscrimination policy monumental for its era, and cites a 1985 Los Angeles Times report that it was the only tract outside Pacoima with a developer-backed policy of open sale to buyers of any color or religion. Contributing status in the district also makes a house eligible for the Mills Act, which matters more to an owner than the plaque does.
Who drew the houses on your street?
The city's adopted preservation plan attributes the tract model by model. The three flat-roofed models, Plans 354, 375 and 405, and the slant-roofed model, Plan 374, were designed by Claude Oakland, Joseph Eichler's principal architect from 1950 on. Only the A-frame, Plan 1505, the model most people photograph, belongs to Jones and Emmons alone. The full account of who Oakland was is on his architect profile.
The public record does not publish an address-by-address key tying every house to its plan number. What it does publish is a list of houses USModernist has independently researched and credited to Oakland by name, below, street by street. If your address is not on it, that does not mean the house is not his. It means no public source has said so yet.
Twenty-three addresses confirmed to Oakland
This is the list USModernist has researched and published, house by house, all in Granada Hills 91344. Twenty-three addresses, four streets, and every one of them credited to Claude Oakland with no split noted between him and Jones and Emmons.
Darla Avenue: 12716, 12724 and 12743.
Jimeno Avenue: 12737, 12740 and 12841.
Lisette Street: 17019, 17025, 17031, 17042, 17043, 17048, 17056, 17079, 17100, 17106, 17154 and 17155.
Nanette Street: 17031, 17037, 17049, 17057 and 17065.
Two more addresses appear in the city's own preservation plan, in its photo captions rather than on USModernist's list: 17078 Lisette Street and 17133 Nanette Street. The plan does not say which architect drew either house, so this page lists them as Balboa Highlands addresses on the record, not as confirmed Oakland houses. A third address, 17019 Lisette Street, appears on both lists, which is the one house in the tract carried by two independent sources.
If you own a Balboa Highlands house
A lot of these houses never hit the market at all, so what you can look up about a street is only part of what happened on it. That is true here as much as anywhere else in the tract's history. Debbie and her team at Coastline 840 set out the wider context in how the Southern California Eichler tracts got protected, and Balboa Highlands sits inside the broader San Fernando Valley mid century modern neighborhoods guide alongside Corbin Palms, Woodland West, Yolanda Gardens and Meadowlark Park in the rest of the Valley's tract modernism.
Any agent can pull comparable sales for a tract house. Start with the architectural homes specialist page, the full architect profiles collection, or the broader guide to Los Angeles house styles. A lot of this stock also moves quietly, which is why it is worth understanding pocket listings and off market homes. An architectural real estate agent California owners of a Balboa Highlands Eichler actually call is one who can tell you which model your house is and what that means for value, and use it when pricing the house rather than after.
Frequently asked questions
How many Balboa Highlands addresses are confirmed to Claude Oakland?
USModernist's own Balboa Highlands page credits twenty-three houses directly to Claude Oakland, spread across Darla Avenue, Jimeno Avenue, Lisette Street and Nanette Street in Granada Hills. None of the twenty-three are split with Jones and Emmons on that page. The tract holds 108 houses in total.
What streets make up Balboa Highlands?
Balboa Highlands sits on four streets off Balboa Boulevard in Granada Hills: Darla Avenue, Jimeno Avenue, Lisette Street and Nanette Street. All 108 houses in the tract, built between 1962 and 1964, sit on these four streets within the Historic Preservation Overlay Zone boundary.
Is my house one of Oakland's?
Check the address list on this page first. If your house is not listed, it may still be his: USModernist's list is not necessarily complete, and the roof line is the other clue, since Oakland designed the flat-roofed and slant-roofed models and Jones and Emmons designed only the A-frame.
Which two addresses appear only in the preservation plan?
The City of Los Angeles's adopted preservation plan names 17078 Lisette Street and 17133 Nanette Street in its own photo captions, alongside 17019 Lisette Street. Unlike 17019 Lisette, which is also on Oakland's USModernist list, the plan does not state who designed either of the other two.
Did Claude Oakland design every Balboa Highlands house?
No. Oakland designed the three flat-roofed models and the slant-roofed model, which cover most of the tract. The steeply-pitched A-frame model, Plan 1505, was designed by Jones and Emmons alone, according to the city's adopted preservation plan for the district.
Was Balboa Highlands open to all buyers regardless of race?
Yes. The city's preservation plan calls this monumental for its era: Balboa Highlands had a developer-backed nondiscrimination policy, and a 1985 Los Angeles Times article found it was the only tract outside Pacoima with one. The plan lists this among the district's character-defining features.
When was Balboa Highlands built?
Balboa Highlands was built between 1962 and 1964 by developer Joseph Eichler. It became a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone under Ordinance 181,088, adopted February 12, 2010, and its Preservation Plan followed that December, making it the first post-war Valley neighborhood to reach historic district status.
Is a Balboa Highlands home eligible for the Mills Act?
Yes, contributing homes at Balboa Highlands are eligible for the Mills Act, according to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning. Eligibility runs through the property's contributing status in the Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, alongside the standard single-family assessed value ceiling and priority criteria.
Who is a good Balboa Highlands real estate agent?
Debbie Pisaro, a twenty-four-year veteran and Inman Luxury Leader based in California, represents buyers and sellers of Eichler and other architectural homes statewide, including at Balboa Highlands in Granada Hills. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
Coastline 840 is a brand of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker.
Address list and per-house attribution: USModernist, Claude Oakland, Balboa Highlands Subdivision, Granada Hills. Model attributions, house count, streets, nondiscrimination history and period of significance: City of Los Angeles, Balboa Highlands HPOZ Preservation Plan, adopted December 9, 2010, and Ordinance No. 181,088. Mills Act eligibility: Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources.
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers of architectural, historic and design-forward homes across California. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Coastline 840 is a boutique California practice and a brand of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com and coastline840.com. Published September 2026.
On the Register
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