La Selva Beach is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. La Selva Beach sits at an elevation of 151ft. The 2010 United States census reported La Selva Beach's population was 2,843.La Selva Beach is one of the several small communities located in and around Aptos. It neighbors Seascape to the north, Corralitos to the east, and Watsonville to the south. The name "La Selva" is Spanish for "the jungle", or, in temperate regions, "the forest". When founded, the small beach community was surrounded by dense conifer woods.GeographyLa Selva Beach lies near the San Andreas Fault, and was close to the epicenter of the October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 5.3 square miles (13.7 km²), all of it land.HistoryIn 1925 it was founded as Rob Roy by real estate developer David Batchelor. The now-defunct (since 2000) Rob Roy Video Store was the only business in the area to make note of this heritage. In 1935 the name was changed to La Selva Beach by the new developer, Edward Burghard. Most of the existing houses were built in the early 1960s. In the 1970s the residents convinced state government to remove "Beach" from the direction signs. Officially the name is still La Selva Beach.
