Rolling Hills Estates
The crossroads of the Hill — where the Peninsula shops, banks, rehearses, and rides. A city that wrote "rural character" into law, kept its bridle trails through every neighborhood, and still runs on horse time at its core.
A rural town that became the Hill's downtown
Rolling Hills Estates incorporated in September 1957 — months after its gated neighbor — for the same reason every Hill city did: to control its own destiny while Los Angeles boomed below. Its founders wrote a general plan around a phrase residents still quote at council meetings: a rural community in an urban setting. White fences, equestrian overlay zones, and 25 miles of bridle trails made it policy.
Then geography made RHE something more. Because the city holds the saddle of the Hill — the natural crossing where Silver Spur, Crenshaw, and Palos Verdes Drive North meet — the Peninsula's shared life gathered here: Peninsula Center and the Promenade, the main library, the Norris Theatre, Peninsula High, and the South Coast Botanic Garden on the city's shoulder. Nearly everyone on the Hill passes through RHE most days, whether they notice the city line or not.
The result is the Peninsula's most interesting balancing act: a working equestrian town wrapped around a regional town center, now facing the Hill's biggest planning questions as new housing works its way through the city's process around Peninsula Center.
Original illustration for Palos Verdes Life
Rolling Hills Estates at a glance
| Incorporated | September 18, 1957 |
|---|---|
| Population | 8,280 (2020 Census) |
| Land area | ≈ 3.6 square miles |
| Identity in law | "A rural community in an urban setting" — equestrian overlay districts and ~25 miles of city bridle trails |
| City hall | 4045 Palos Verdes Drive North · rollinghillsestates.gov |
| ZIP code | 90274 (Palos Verdes Peninsula / Rolling Hills Estates) |
| Schools | PVPUSD — Dapplegray, Rancho Vista, Vista Grande, Soleado and Silver Spur Elementary (plus a few Montemalaga streets); Miraleste, Ridgecrest or PV Intermediate by address; high school is a choice of PVHS or Peninsula High (in-city) |
| Police / fire | L.A. County Sheriff (Lomita Station) · L.A. County Fire |
The Peninsula Center pipeline
The Hill's real planning story is housing around Peninsula Center: a 454-unit mixed-use project at 615–855 Deep Valley Drive, working through a supplemental EIR, and 90 homes at the Peninsula Shopping Center on Norris Center Drive, entitled in December 2024. The Promenade, meanwhile, has leaned into entertainment tenants since its 2022 sale. State housing mandates drive much of it — and residents weigh every step against the city's rural character. Where it stands →
Peartree Lane, 2023
In July 2023 a sudden canyon-edge landslide destroyed a dozen homes on Peartree Lane — a shock on a part of the Hill with no slide history, and a reminder that canyon-rim geology deserves respect everywhere on the Peninsula, not just at Portuguese Bend. Full background: pvlandslide.com.
RHE's neighborhoods, mapped
Markers are approximate neighborhood centers, not legal boundaries. Corrections from residents welcome — tell us.
Every Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood
One guide per neighborhood, with a guide for each recorded tract inside it: homes, build years, lots, streets, the recorded map, and schools by address from PVPUSD's locator.
- Cresta Verde126 homes · built 1972–2002 · 1 tract guide
- Dapplegray Lanes170 homes · built mostly 1947–1962
- Empty Saddle165 homes · built 1927–2022 · 1 tract guide
- Hidden Valley & Pleasant Hill37 homes · built 1953–2011 · 1 tract guide
- Hitching Post104 homes · built mostly 1953–1965 · 3 tract guides
- Larga Vista136 homes · built mostly 1955–1957
- Los Ranchos Verdes & Ranchview221 homes · built mostly 1953–1960 · 2 tract guides
- Masongate185 homes · built 1924–2021 · 3 tract guides
- Montecillo190 homes · built mostly 1960–1978 · 1 tract guide
- Palomino Ranchos57 homes · built mostly 1960–1964
- Peninsula Center118 homes · built mostly 2008–2018 · 2 tract guides
- Roanwood49 homes · built mostly 1956–1978 · 1 tract guide
- Rolling Hills Country Club Estates180 homes · built 1968–2022 · 2 tract guides
- Rolling Hills Park Estates348 homes · built mostly 1973–1991 · 3 tract guides
- Rollingwood450 homes · built mostly 1955–1959 · 3 tract guides
- Strawberry Lane33 homes · built 1946–2018
- The Ranch139 homes · built mostly 1979–1981
- The Terraces425 homes · built mostly 1968–1975 · 1 tract guide
- The Vantage Pointe67 homes · built mostly 1999–2001
A few Rolling Hills Estates homes sit on tracts that lie mostly in a neighboring city, so their guides are there: 25 homes in Mesa Palos Verdes and 34 homes in Tract 29223 (Silver Arrow).
The neighborhoods of Rolling Hills Estates
Peninsula Center & Deep Valley
The Peninsula's downtown: the shops and restaurants of Peninsula Center, the Promenade and its Norris Theatre, the main Peninsula Center Library, and the medical and office life of Deep Valley Drive. Townhomes and condominiums around the center offer the Hill's most walkable living — a rarity worth knowing about for downsizers who want to stay on the Peninsula.
The Ranch
A private, gated neighborhood of about 139 homes on Misty Acres Road, Country Meadow Road and Clear Vista Drive, built from 1978 to 1981 near Highridge and Crest roads. Bridle trails run throughout, though the city's General Plan notes that fewer residents keep horses here than in Dapplegray Lanes. One of the Hill's quietest addresses, minutes from Peninsula Center.
Dapplegray Lanes
The soul of equestrian RHE: streets named for gaits and tack, corrals in the side yards, and kids who learn to post before they learn to drive. Dapplegray Elementary and the Empty Saddle Club — the 1930s riding club that anchors the Hill's horse culture — are the neighborhood's twin institutions, with Ernie Howlett Park's arenas across the Drive.
Chandler Ranch, Montecillo & the Country Club
The old Chandler quarry lands became the city's largest modern project: the rebuilt Rolling Hills Country Club with its David McLay Kidd course, ringed by a new generation of estate homes. It is the rare place on the Peninsula where you can buy new construction — and the views over the course to the basin explain the price of it. Next door, the quieter Montecillo tract strings its cul-de-sacs along the same slope, many with views across the South Bay to downtown and the mountains.
Rollingwood & Silver Saddle
Classic mid-century RHE between Palos Verdes Drive North and the hill: one-story ranches on generous lots, mature trees, trails at the end of the block, and Rancho Vista Elementary within bike reach. If you ask a longtime resident to describe "regular RHE," this is the picture they paint.
The western hills
The city's western neighborhoods climb from Silver Spur Road toward the RPV line — a mix of ranch homes and townhome communities with basin and harbor glimpses, closest to Peninsula High and the morning coffee lines of Silver Spur's shops.
The Botanic Garden shoulder
Along Crenshaw's descent sits one of America's great land-reclamation stories: the South Coast Botanic Garden, 87 acres of gardens grown over a former diatomite mine and county landfill since 1961. The garden — and the neighborhoods near it — mark the Hill's transition to the city below.
What the whole Hill borrows from RHE
Norris Theatre
The Peninsula's performing-arts home since 1983 — Broadway series, concerts, and the youth conservatory next door.
South Coast Botanic Garden
87 acres of rose gardens, lake, and seasonal light shows atop reclaimed land — one of the region's best memberships.
Empty Saddle Club
The 1930s riding club that keeps the Hill's western traditions — gymkhanas, barbecues, and boarding under the pepper trees.
Peninsula Center Library
The flagship of the Palos Verdes Library District, and the Hill's de facto living room on a rainy day.
On the market in RHE
A sample of current RHE activity — the Real Estate page has more Rolling Hills Estates listings from our curated sample, plus the Hill-wide map, medians, and market notes. Every property links to its Properkey page where one exists. Data powered by Properkey.
The Rolling Hills Estates market
RHE offers the Hill's widest menu: equestrian properties with real horse rights, mid-century family ranches, townhomes near the center, and new construction at Chandler Ranch. Equestrian overlay rules, trail easements, and canyon-rim geology all shape value here.
South Coast Botanic Garden · InSapphoWeTrust, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Real estate content by Properkey, CA DRE #01979718 · Equal Housing Opportunity
Rolling Hills Estates quick links
City & safety
- City of Rolling Hills EstatesPermits, parks, equestrian
- City Council agendas & video2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 7 pm
- Alert SouthBayEmergency notifications
The institutions
- South Coast Botanic Garden87 acres on reclaimed land
- Norris TheatrePalos Verdes Performing Arts
- Peninsula Center LibraryPV Library District flagship
Schools serving RHE
- Schools & boundariesPVPUSD guide with boundary map
- ElementaryDapplegray · Rancho Vista · Vista Grande · Soleado · Silver Spur · a few Montemalaga streets
- SecondaryMiraleste, Ridgecrest or PV Intermediate, by address → PVHS or Peninsula High (your choice)
- Check firstA few Rolling Hills Country Club homes are in LAUSD or Torrance USD (PVPUSD boundary page)