Toluca Lake Neighborhood Details

Toluca Lake, a small town in a big city.

Neighborhood Stats according to Next Door

Population 8,227 residents

Average age 50 years old

Homeowners 51%

Established 1923

Distance to LAX 31 mins

Distance to Downtown 21 mins

Discover Los Angeles.  Toluca Lake is one of the many parts of the City of Los Angeles. It is a great place to live and might be an option for you pending your needs and what you desire.  Toluca Lake is known for being tranquil with idealistic neighborhoods.  This guide is a mixture of the facts, location, population, history of this neighborhood all needed for your decision to relocate.

Toluca Lake is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles located in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, 12 miles Northwest of Downtown LA. The name is also given to a private natural lake fed by the Los Angeles River and maintained by neighboring property owners.

The history of Toluca Lake can be traced to the days of the Tongva Indians, followed by Spanish colonization and Mexican independence. Toluca Lake was part of the early rancho system. The original Toluca Lake was divided, with the neighborhood being known as Forman Toluca Ranch. In 1923, investors bought and developed the land as "Toluca Lake Park".

The Toluca Lake neighborhood is situated on 1.22 square miles of the southeastern San Fernando Valley. The Mapping L.A. section of the Los Angeles Times website describes it as bounded on the south by Universal City, on the west by Studio City, on the north by North Hollywood and on the east by the city of Burbank.

The Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce website states that the district is not only a neighborhood in Los Angeles but that it "spills over into Burbank" and "Political entities and others, such as the Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council each draw their own boundaries to suit specific needs. For example, the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce serves the entire community in Burbank and Los Angeles, while the City of Los Angeles considers its neighborhood called Toluca Lake to be entirely within its city boundaries.

Over the years, the lake in which Toluca Lake is named after has been surrounded by 35 homes thus preventing anyone from driving by and seeing the Lake.  The lake itself is a 6-acre body of water and was fed by the Springs of groundwater from the Los Angeles River and San Fernando Valley subterranean aquifers.  In 1930 the LA DWP concrete river channelization lowered the water table and now the bottom of the lake is surfaced with four inches of asphalt concrete to prevent seepage.  The lake was split by the Clybourn Dam and a portion is now in Burbank with 5 homes on it.   The lake itself is owned by homeowners surrounding the lake and maintained by the Toluca Lake Property Owners Association, a non-profit corporation established in 1934.

The main strip through Toluca Lake is Riverside Drive which has a variety of shops and restaurants like; Patys, Starkey’s, The Counter, Forman’s, The Riverside, SweetSalt, Hungry Crowd, Coffee Bean, Kreation, Hank’s Bagels, Something Vegan, Olive & Thyme, Aeirloom, a Post Office, UPS Store, A La Mutt, several banks, a Trader Joe’s and so much more.

Start your Toluca Lake home search here.