Casa Conejo, Newbury Park: What It Is Like to Live Here

Drive down Wendy Drive, now one of Newbury Park's busiest arterials, and you are on a street that started life in 1960 as a quiet tract road carrying the first name of someone in the developer's family. Lesser, Gerald, Dena, Michael and Cathy Drives are the rest of them. That is Casa Conejo in one detail: the oldest planned neighborhood in Newbury Park, still laid out the way it was built, with the elementary school in the center, sidewalks on every block, and a street sign color that quietly tells you the city line is somewhere behind you.

Life on the original Newbury Park grid

Casa Conejo is roughly rectangular and roughly 300 acres: the 101 and Old Conejo Road on the north, Borchard Road on the south, Jenny Drive on the west, and Sequoia Middle School on the east. Inside that box the streets run straight, the lots are flat, and the trees have had sixty years to grow. This is not a hillside or view tract. It is an everyday neighborhood where kids walk to Walnut Elementary.

About 3,300 people live here, and that number has barely moved in ten years. Nearly every house is occupied. The practical read for a buyer is that this is a built-out, stable tract rather than a place with constant new supply.

Civic life runs through the Casa Conejo Municipal Advisory Council, which meets at Walnut Elementary and carries resident concerns to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. The topics are the ones you would expect of a mature neighborhood with no HOA: traffic enforcement, graffiti, upkeep of the occasional neglected house, and the level of county services.

The homes: 1960s originals, no HOA, no gate

Louis Lesser Enterprises built the tract beginning in 1960, and it reads as a single era throughout. These are the detached single-family homes that Conejo Valley developers were putting up as the ranches sold off, sited on flat lots along open, county-maintained streets.

There is no homeowners association. That means no dues, no architectural committee and no community amenities, and it also means nobody but Ventura County code enforcement weighs in on how a neighbor keeps the front yard. Buyers who want latitude over their own exterior tend to like that. Buyers who want uniform curb appeal should look at a newer tract with CC&Rs.

Because the homes are sixty-plus years old, condition drives value more than almost anything else. Two houses of the same original plan can sit in very different price brackets depending on whether plumbing, electrical, roof and kitchen have been redone. We tell clients to budget inspection time for the usual 1960s items and to price against recent closed sales on comparable streets. For context on where the wider market sits, see our Newbury Park home values page.

Schools: Walnut Elementary is in the middle of the tract

Casa Conejo is served by Conejo Valley Unified, and the city line has no effect on school assignment. The default path is Walnut Elementary, Sequoia Middle and Newbury Park High.

• Walnut Elementary sits on Dena Drive in the center of the neighborhood, which makes most of the tract a walk-to-school location.
• Sequoia Middle School forms the eastern boundary of the community.
• Newbury Park High School is west on Borchard Road next to Borchard Community Park.

Homes on the boundary streets, Jenny, Borchard, Old Conejo and the Debbie and Virginia edge, should always be confirmed by exact address with the district before a buyer relies on a particular school.

Parks, trails and getting out of the neighborhood

Parks in the Conejo Valley are run by the Conejo Recreation and Park District, a separate agency from the city, so Casa Conejo residents have the same access as anyone in Thousand Oaks.

• Borchard Community Park, 29 acres at Reino Road and Borchard Road, is a straight shot west down Borchard and sits at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains beside Newbury Park High.
• Rancho Conejo Playfields, 13 acres on North Ventu Park Road, backs onto Conejo Canyons Open Space and the Arroyo Conejo Nature Preserve, about 300 acres of open space with the closest real trail network to the tract.
• Wildwood Regional Park is the larger regional option in the district.

For commuters, the 101 forms the north edge of the tract and the Borchard Road and Wendy Drive interchanges are the neighborhood's own on and off ramps, so most homes are within a half mile of the freeway. The trade-off is that the northernmost streets along Old Conejo Road hear the 101. If you are looking at a home on that tier, walk it at rush hour and again at night before you decide.

The county island: what unincorporated really means here

Casa Conejo is completely surrounded by the City of Thousand Oaks but is not part of it. Construction began in 1960, Thousand Oaks incorporated four years later, and when the rest of Newbury Park was annexed through the late 1960s and 1970s, Casa Conejo stayed out. Voters rejected annexation again in the 1980s, and today it and Ventu Park are the only pieces of Newbury Park outside city limits.

For an owner, that changes who you call. Building permits, code enforcement, animal control, street maintenance and law enforcement all come from Ventura County, not the City of Thousand Oaks. There is no city council member for the neighborhood; instead the Municipal Advisory Council advises the District 2 County Supervisor. Mail is addressed Newbury Park 91320 like everything around it, which is why buyers sometimes assume city services apply. They do not, and we put that in writing for clients.

None of this affects schools, parks or the feel of daily life. It mostly shows up in permit paperwork, in who answers a complaint, and in the different street sign colors once you cross the line.

Who Casa Conejo suits, and how it compares nearby

This neighborhood fits a buyer who wants a detached home in Newbury Park with no HOA, an elementary school within walking distance, freeway access without a long drive through town, and an established, flat, tree-lined street rather than a view lot. It also fits renovators: the 1960s plan and lot give plenty to work with and nobody reviews your exterior choices.

It is a weaker fit if you want a newer build, a gated entry, shared amenities, hillside views or the certainty of city services. If that is closer to your list, compare it against other Newbury Park tracts we cover, including Discovery Homes, Cameo Homes and OakRidge Estates, or browse the full set of Newbury Park neighborhoods.

Before writing an offer here, confirm the school by address, note which agency issued any permits for past work, check the tax bill, and get a thorough inspection on the original systems. Those four steps cover most of what trips people up in a county island of this age.

Owning in Casa Conejo

Newbury Park market, latest data

• Median sale price$1.1M
• Change over 12 months+7.6%
• Typical days on market42

Citywide, three months ending May 2026. Newbury Park home values

Our experience here

We sell across this part of the Conejo Valley, including the neighborhoods around Casa Conejo, and are glad to talk through how it compares.

Get a private valuation (805) 341-6125

Newbury Park home prices, the last five years

Questions people ask about Casa Conejo