Warner Center is a business development in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California.Warner Center, which began as a master-planned area, is designated as a Regional Center within the City’s Canoga Park-West Hills-Winnetka-Woodland Hills Community Plan. Historically, Warner Center is generally bounded by Vanowen Street to the north, the Ventura Freeway to the south, De Soto Avenue to the east, and Topanga Canyon Boulevard on the west. The Warner Center 2035 Plan (adopted in December 2013) added the area between Vanowen and the LA River to the plan area, which comprises approximately 1,100 acres or 1.7 square miles.The area was originally planned to relieve traffic to and from downtown Los Angeles, as well as generate jobs in the San Fernando Valley. It was first envisioned in the late 1960s.Historic contextWarner Center is named for Harry Warner, the eldest of the Warner Brothers, owned the land since the 1940s, which he used as a horse ranch. His family donated 20 acres of land in 1967 that became the Warner Center Park (also known as the Warner Ranch Park), situated east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard between Califa Street and Marylee Street.In 1968, Robert Allison, then the manager for the San Fernando Valley office of Coldwell Banker, arranged the sale of 630 acres of the land to Aetna Life and Casualty for $30 million. Aetna acquired the land for long-term investment and development purposes, and later brought in Kaiser as a joint venture partner. Mr. Allison spearheaded the early land planning, subdivision and development efforts on behalf of Kaiser Aetna.
