West Hills, Santee, CA

Weekends in West Hills tend to revolve around Santee Lakes, the chain of seven fishing lakes on the north side of Santee. Around it, the neighborhood spreads across the city's northwest quarter, from quiet subdivisions near Mast Boulevard up into open hills that are still mostly empty. The established streets near Woodglen Vista Park and North Magnolia Avenue are lined with suburban houses from around 1970. The bigger change is still on paper. The Fanita Ranch plan for the hills to the north, approved by the city council in 2025 after earlier court challenges, calls for 2,949 homes in three villages, and sets aside more than 60 percent of the land as open space, with a farm and vineyard still worked inside it. Santee Lakes is the star outdoors. Anglers fish its stocked lakes with a park permit instead of a state license, campers book a 300-site campground and cabins on or beside the water, and pedal boats circle the islands while birders count species along more than five miles of paths. Woodglen Vista Park adds a skate park and a dog run. At the east edge, the Walker Preserve Trail leaves Magnolia Avenue and follows the San Diego River toward Lakeside, with murals of local history painted on its bridges and old farm and mining equipment along the way. Island Style Cafe, at 9828 North Magnolia Avenue, has dished out Hawaiian barbecue plates since 2008. The corner of Mast Boulevard and Carlton Hills Boulevard hosts the city's farmers market every Wednesday afternoon, with later hours in the warm months. Smart & Final Extra on Magnolia Avenue handles the weekly shop, and the same center has pizza, pho and a frozen yogurt counter. Commuters head out on State Route 52 or State Route 67, and the trolley is a drive away at the Town Center station. Most of the restaurants and stores sit in just two centers, one on North Magnolia Avenue and one at Mast and Carlton Hills, so the choice is narrower than down along Mission Gorge Road. In exchange, West Hills has the lakes, the river trail and the open hills on its own side of town.