Getting to Know Hacienda Heights
How Hacienda Heights Sits
Hacienda Heights is an unincorporated community in the East San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, with no city government of its own. It covers nearly twelve square miles and is the county’s second-largest unincorporated place by area, with around 54,000 residents. Because the community is unincorporated, the county handles permits, road work, and street rules through its own departments rather than a local city hall. The 60 freeway runs along the northern edge of the community, and Hacienda Boulevard and Colima Road are among the main routes. Hacienda Heights borders the City of Industry to the north and La Habra Heights to the south. Whittier and the unincorporated North Whittier area lie to the west, with Rowland Heights to the east.
The community is mostly residential and family-oriented, with nearly seventeen thousand homes, the majority owner-occupied single-family houses. The northern half lies on the flatter valley floor, while the southern half climbs into the Puente Hills, where homes sit on grades with views over the valley. Hacienda Heights is highly diverse, with large Latino and Asian populations, and it is home to the Hsi Lai Temple, the largest traditional Buddhist temple in the Western Hemisphere.
From Rancho La Puente to a San Gabriel Suburb
The land was home to the Tongva people, and during the Spanish era, it was part of Rancho La Puente, a large holding tied to Mission San Gabriel. In 1845, the rancho was granted to John A. Rowland and William Workman, two of the earliest American settlers in the region. Decades later, it passed to the Gold Rush millionaire Elias “Lucky” Baldwin. His descendant Anita Baldwin sold this stretch of land in 1912 to Edwin Hart and Jet Torrance, who subdivided it the next year and named it North Whittier Heights.
For the first several decades, it was an orchard belt, with avocados, citrus, and walnuts as the leading crops. Pests and disease cut into citrus profits during the Depression, and the early 1940s, and the orchards began giving way to homes. Postwar suburbanization filled the rest of the valley floor and started climbing the Puente Hills, and the community took its current name as it grew. The 1988 dedication of the Hsi Lai Temple at the southern edge of the community marked its later growth into one of the most ethnically diverse suburbs in the East Valley.
What a Hacienda Heights Move Really Involves
Hacienda Heights is unincorporated, so a move here works under the Los Angeles County rather than a city hall. For larger moves, LA County Public Works issues the temporary no-parking permits that hold curb space at the address, arranged and posted in advance. On the wider flat-side streets, the truck usually has room to work, but the permit keeps it close to the door on the busier corridors and the narrower hillside roads.
The terrain is the local factor that shapes the work. In the southern half of the community, the Puente Hills bring streets that climb and curve. Homes sit above the road behind long or graded driveways. We plan the truck size and the approach, and allow for a longer carry. On the flat-side streets, most homes are detached single-family houses with driveways and garages, so the job is loading a full home rather than carrying boxes down a stairwell, and we size the crew to the house.
The 60 freeway and the main boulevards can run heavy at peak hours, so we plan the route and the timing around the traffic. We take care of the permit, the access, and the truck size before move day, so nothing slows the job once the crew is on site.