Palos Verdes Estates

Palos Verdes Estates was established as a subdivision in 1923, with 3,200 acres (1,300 ha) carved out of the former Rancho Palos Verdes property of over 16,000 acres (6,500 ha). Frank Vanderlip established both a land syndicate holding the Palos Verdes peninsula, and a real estate development trust for the Palos Verdes Estates subdivision. The Commonwealth Trust Company filed the Palos Verdes Protective Restrictions in Los Angeles County in 1923. These restrictions established rules for the developer and all land owners. The developer was required to set aside half of the land for common use, including roads and parks, but also built bridle paths, a golf course, and retained several miles of coastline free of development. No less than ninety percent of the remaining land was required to be used for single-family homes.

The designers of Palos Verdes Estates, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Charles Cheney, used deed restrictions as a method of controlling development of the subdivision, even after many of the lots would have already been sold. The deed restrictions prohibited nuisance businesses, such as polluting industries, but also bars and cemeteries. The deed restrictions also included an exclusionary racial covenant which forbid an owner from selling or renting a house to anyone who wasn’t Caucasian. They were also not permitted to have African-Americans on their property with the exception of chauffeurs, gardeners, and domestic servants. An art jury reviewed all building plans, regulating any structure in regard to style, material, and even small details like color and the pitch of the roof. The construction of fences and hedges were subject to evaluation by the art jury.

At the time of the city’s incorporation in 1939, the business and shop area around Malaga Cove had most of the Peninsula’s earlier buildings. The Malaga Cove Plaza building of the Palos Verdes Public Library, designed by Pasadena architect Myron Hunt, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Palos Verdes Estates was one of the earliest masterplanned communities in the United States.

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools
The city is served by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. A previous The Washington Post study ranked the nearby Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (the “Panthers”; enrollment 2,400) as the # 8 best among public and private high schools in the United States. U.S. News & World Report recently academically ranks it # 89 among 18,500 U.S. high schools, and Newsweek ranks it # 146. In 2014, thedailybeast.com ranked the two area high schools as the 44th and 121st best high schools in the country.

Palos Verdes Peninsula High School also annually honors the largest collection of National Merit Scholar recipients (usually 50–60) enrolled in a U.S. high school in any year. In any given year there is routinely a dozen-way or more tie for the valedictorian (highest grade point average) honors in the graduating class. The smaller enrollment Palos Verdes High School (the “Sea Kings”; enrollment 1,900) achieved the same API score as Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (898). Both schools’ students and faculties in science and computer science curricula are participants in national robotic engineering advancement, and have competed against universities (Caltech, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell) and defense contractor firms in government-sponsored robotic science application challenges (example: The Sea Kings competed in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge; the only U.S. high school to do so).

Public school-enrollment students can attend either Palos Verdes High School in Palos Verdes Estates (Lunada Bay), or the larger Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, in adjacent Rolling Hills Estates. Prior to 2002, students were only offered to attend Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, as the Palos Verdes High School, originally built as a high school, had been designated an intermediate school as student enrollments declined in 1970–1990s. In 2002 Palos Verdes High School was recommissioned as a high school again to accommodate the recent growth in student enrollments across the entire Palos Verdes Peninsula. The student enrollment growth has occurred as original homeowner-retirees have sold their homes over the recent years to younger families, and moved to smaller senior citizen housing on the peninsula or elsewhere.

Private schools
Chadwick School is another well known school in the area. It is a K-12 independent, nonsectarian school which was established in 1935.

In 1992 the International Bilingual School, a Japanese preparatory school for grades K-9, moved to Palos Verdes Estates. By 2002 the PVUSD had filed suit to force the International Bilingual School to leave the property that the school was located in. The PVUSD owned the school building.

Public libraries
The Palos Verdes Library District operates the Malaga Cove Library in Palos Verdes Estates.

Palos Verdes Estates is the only city on the Palos Verdes Peninsula to have its own police department (the other three peninsula cities contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, using the station in nearby Lomita). The department currently has 25 officers. These officers are assigned to different divisions such as traffic, patrol and detectives. The city also has its own dispatch center and jail. Both are staffed 24 hours a day.

Fire prevention and Paramedic response services are provided by the Los Angeles County Fire Department with engine company firehouse facilities located within the city limits.

It is the home of the Lunada Bay Boys surf gang which has been subject to several lawsuits over the past years and much publicity.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Torrance Health Center in Harbor Gateway, Los Angeles, near Torrance and serving Palos Verdes Estates.