Beverlywood, Los Angeles, CA

Beverlywood is a Los Angeles neighborhood where a homes association still has a say in how each house looks, a rule developer Walter Leimert wrote into the tract when it opened in 1940. It sits just south of Pico Boulevard, with Cheviot Hills and the Hillcrest Country Club along its western side. Homes in Beverlywood are all detached houses, roughly 1,350 of them, set behind front lawns that line up evenly from block to block. Binding covenants cover size, style, color and landscaping, and the Beverlywood Homes Association enforces them. Parks here work differently than in most of the city. For courts, fields and a pool, the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center on Motor Avenue is a short drive west, and Hillcrest's fairways border the neighborhood, though the club is private. Pico Boulevard to the north handles much of daily life. At the south end, a Vons and a Starbucks share the Cheviot Hills Shopping Center on National Boulevard, so the basics are close on both sides. The covenants cut both ways. They keep the streets consistent, and they also bring association fees, design review and firm limits on what an owner can add or change. Anyone planning a big remodel in Beverlywood will spend time with the association before a contractor. Circle Park is where the private arrangement opens up. On a quiet weekend morning it is the one shared green where people from all over the tract cross paths.