During the late 1930's and early 1940's Southern California boomed as an industrial center because of World War II. Thousands of people worked in plants manufacturing things needed by the military. The shipyards in San Pedro were very busy as were several aircraft plants. Tracts of flat-roofed homes were hurriedly built in Long Beach, Artesia, and Norwalk.

After the war, many of the workers stayed. They and returning veterans found jobs in new industries that were “spin-offs” of the war. By 1950, the Los Angeles city population was nearly two million people. The freeway systems which began in the 1940's were extending in all directions. They had replaced the Pacific Electric system.

New homes were being built very quickly. The new home owners complained about the smell and flies, and the dairy farmers were being crowded out of Paramount and Downey entirely.

Lakewood was the most spectacular example of the new housing boom. A single developer purchased 3,375 acres of farmland, and as the last crops were being harvested, crews laid 133 miles of paved streets. The most modern methods were used. Power diggers could trench a foundation in fifteen minutes. carpenters used automatic nailing machines and pre-cut lumber. Conveyor belts carried shingles to the roofs. On some days, one hundred new homes were started and in the first two years ten thousand were finished. Sales were brisk, usually financed by G.I. loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority. The houses were modern, well-planned, and comfortable, and averaged a cost of $7,000. Business peaked in 1950 with 107 sales in an hour.

The housing shortage was solved and thousands of workers were employed in construction or sales. Norwalk was building south and Buena Park in Orange County was building west in a similar if less spectacular fashion. The dairy farmers could see their remaining rural area shrink.

After the war, many of the workers stayed. They and returning veterans found jobs in new industries that were “spin-offs” of the war. By 1950, the Los Angeles city population was nearly two million people. The freeway systems which began in the 1940's were extending in all directions. They had replaced the Pacific Electric system.

New homes were being built very quickly. The new home owners complained about the smell and flies, and the dairy farmers were being crowded out of Paramount and Downey entirely.

Lakewood was the most spectacular example of the new housing boom. A single developer purchased 3,375 acres of farmland, and as the last crops were being harvested, crews laid 133 miles of paved streets. The most modern methods were used. Power diggers could trench a foundation in fifteen minutes. carpenters used automatic nailing machines and pre-cut lumber. Conveyor belts carried shingles to the roofs. On some days, one hundred new homes were started and in the first two years ten thousand were finished. Sales were brisk, usually financed by G.I. loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority. The houses were modern, well-planned, and comfortable, and averaged a cost of $7,000. Business peaked in 1950 with 107 sales in an hour.

The housing shortage was solved and thousands of workers were employed in construction or sales. Norwalk was building south and Buena Park in Orange County was building west in a similar if less spectacular fashion. The dairy farmers could see their remaining rural area shrink.

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With the 1950's came an explosion of development. “Instant city” Lakewood suddenly had 77,000 people. It was assumed that Lakewood would be annexed by its aggressive neighbor to the south, Long Beach. However, Lakewood wanted to keep its own community identity and to retain its local utility companies that would lose their franchises with annexation. Arrangements were made to contract with Los Angeles county for some of the expensive services, such as police and fire protection, libraries, and street maintenance. Many of the costs that normally would have put a new city into debt were eliminated, and Lakewood was incorporated in 1954.

Other communities were so interested in the “Lakewood Plan” that the county even set up an office to give technical assistance. The state legislature cooperated as well. In 1956, the Bradley-Burns Act was passed, which provided a one per cent sales tax rebate for cities, to be distributed by the state. This helped alleviate the problem of funding the new city governments. Between 1954 and 1974, forty-seven new cities were to become incorporated in the Los Angeles-Orange County area.

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Los Angeles County Ordinance 5800 had established the Artesia Zoned District in August 1951. This was the area south of Alondra Boulevard and between the San Gabriel River and Coyote Creek to the point where the two streams join.

During the spring and summer of 1955, members of the Artesia Chamber of Commerce started to move toward incorporation of Artesia as a municipality that would have included all the zoned district and been one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the county. They had some direction from Angelo Iacoboni, a Lakewood attorney who had spearheaded his city's incorporation.

In August, they had an informal meeting at Mike's Cafe on Carson Boulevard to discuss the idea. The “greater Artesia” boosters were Richard Franks, Dale Donnell, Henry Korsmeier, Jack Lear, William Reynolds, Oscar Bergstrom, Ralph Burnight, and Lee Johnson. Dairymen Jim Albers (who was also on the Artesia Chamber of Commerce board), Albert Veldhuizen, Leslie Nottingham, and Frank Leal had been invited to the meeting.

It was soon apparent that this was not a “preliminary” meeting. Boundary papers and petitions were ready for distribution and Artesia wanted development that would not include feed lots for cattle or poultry ranches. Housing developments would be sandwiched between the dairies, and as the new homeowners objected to the smells and flies, the dairymen and poultrymen would be forced to move and eventually be zoned out entirely as had happened in Paramount and Downey. The dairymen had much at stake. They had a multi-million dollar industry to protect as well as their way of life. Most of them had worked hard to build up their herds and planned to continue with the help of their growing children.

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Similar things were happening in Orange County where an area just across Coyote Creek had incorporated itself as Dairyland to escape annexation by Buena Park. Cypress had once been called Watertown, but was to call itself Dairy City when it incorporated in 1956. The name Dairy Valley was suggested for the new community in the Artesia area of Los Angeles County.

It was apparent that the Artesia boosters would control the situation if they had a chance to bring their issue before the voters. They had a four-to-one advantage in voting population. Although the assessed valuation of central Artesia was only $4 million, they would be in the position of power over the $18 million assessed value dairy area. A rise in property and school taxes would be inevitable. The latter was a special blow to the dairymen whose children most often attended private, church-operated schools.

Long Beach realtors had already subdivided an old dairy near Pioneer Boulevard and Del Amo and were building a tract to be known as Artesia Crest. The dairymen did not need a tract full of happy homeowners who were sure to vote with Artesia on incorporation! The dairymen took care of the Artesia Crest problem by buying houses in the new tract and moving their milkers into them.

At first they hoped that Dairy Valley would include Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, and a strip known as Monterey Acres, now part of Lakewood. By election time it had narrowed into a smaller region.

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Albert Veldhuizen was chairman of the Dairy Valley committee. Of Dutch descent, he and his wife were from Minnesota, had settled in the Artesia area in 1938, and lived with four sons on a dairy on Studebaker Road. He was a candidate for the first city council. Other dairyman candidates included John Schoneveld, originally from Iowa; Jacob “Jim” Albers and Louis Struikman, who were born in Holland; and Jack R. Bettencourt, originally from Massachusetts. A. C. Pinhiero and Francisco C. De Mello were natives of the Portuguese Azores. The poultry men were Hal Rees, who had a career recording music for motion pictures before he concentrated on poultry ranching with 15,000 birds, and George Sperou who was also an engineer.

Their campaign promised not to “freeze things as they are now” but to encourage commercial development, clean industry, and individual homes on A2-5 zoned acres (one house per five acres). Services would be contracted for with the county. Government would be simple and economical, with two regular employees and no salary or expense accounts for councilmen. Especially, they promised not to levy any property taxes. Half of the community's operational costs would be paid from “in lieu” taxes, collected by the state and county and later returned to the city. The other half would come from a tax on commerce at the wholesale level, affecting in particular hay, grain, and trucking. In fact, county taxes would even be reduced five cents per $100 as the county supervisorial district would be terminated.

There must have been a great amount of tension in the Artesia-Dairy Valley area during the winter of 1955 and spring of 1956. At last the incorporation election was held. Although the results were close, 441 to 391, the dairy and poultrymen had won by 60 votes.

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The Secretary of State approved the Articles of Incorporation, and Dairy Valley was considered an incorporated city as of Tuesday, April 24, 1956.

The newly elected city council consisted of Jacob Albers, Jack R. Bettencourt, Hal Rees, Albert Veldhuizen, and Louis Struikman, who had won over A. C. Pinhiero by one vote.

That evening, the first community meeting was held in Carmenita School auditorium, the only building in the community that was large enough. Hal Rees acted as mayor pro-tem and William Cecil was named acting city manager. During the meeting, Jack R. Bettencourt was elected to be Dairy Valley's first mayor.

The business discussion was concerned with adoption of a basic county zoning ordinance, with certain sections deleted so that school boards would be required to apply to the council for zoning exceptions before they could construct schools and colleges. Carmenita School auditorium was to continue to be the council meeting place and the temporary office for the city would be at the Central Milk Sales office at 17032 S. Pioneer, Artesia, where “Bill” Cecil was already the business manager.

Business was to be on a “for cash” basis, but a $3000 loan from a local feed company helped set up facilities and pay the staff of two - Bill Cecil and Joy D. Horn, who was hired at a salary of $350 a month to be city clerk and treasurer. Typically, the loan was paid back completely by October.

The new city of Dairy Valley, shaped like a horse-shoe that embraced but did not include the community of Artesia, had a population of 3,500 people - and 32,000 cows, 83,000 chickens, and 9,600 turkeys. There were 105 acres of row crops, including many fields of strawberries which had become a lucrative crop in the 1940's. Assessed valuation was $26 million. The first city budget was set at $33,190.

Dairy Valley was not unique in being dedicated to particular development. In the early 1900's San Marino wanted to remain exclusively residential. Vernon's farmers wanted to keep houses out because they would eventually get more money for their land if large parcels were available for future industrial development. However, in an era in which the trend was toward vast tracts of housing, the story of Dairy Valley was to be featured in a U.S. Department of Agriculture publication and is used as an example in current textbooks on urban planning.

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One of the provisions voted for in the April 10 election was that the city have a city manager form of government. Robert Coop, administrative manger for the city of Inglewood, explained the operation of such a government to the citizens of newly-incorporated Downey by comparing it to the organizational structure of a corporation. The citizens would be the stockholders, the city council would be the board of directors, the mayor would be the chairman of the board, and the city manager would be the general manager of the corporation. The city manager prepares the budget and is in charge of day-to-day operations. He is especially trained and may make suggestions to the council. He is hired by the city, not elected, so he does not have to worry about votes or political repercussions, but he is responsible to the elected city council.

In September 1956, Bill Cecil returned to his full-time management job with the Central Milk Sales Agency, and Mayrant D. McKeown took over the position of Dairy Valley city manager. McKeown was 33, a UCLA and Long Beach State College public administration graduate, and just beginning his chosen career. He was assisted by Margaret Bengel, who had replaced Mrs. Horn as city clerk and treasurer.

In November 1956, Agnes Hickey was hired to “help at the city office” at 11810 E. 186th Street, Artesia. She became the official city clerk in April 1957, and remained in that position until she retired as the employee with the longest service in 1981.

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All was not smooth sailing. Dairy Valley councilmen had promised in their campaign that they would not seek out areas for annexation but would accept dairy areas that wanted to be included. Lakewood and Bellflower had expected to annex the dairies that lay west of the San Gabriel River, but the landowners preferred to be included in Dairy Valley. Ensuing court battles kept City Attorney Glenn Watson busy, but the courts' decisions made Palo Verde Street the western boundary. Later there would be boundary battles with the new cities of Santa Fe Springs and Norwalk which wanted to expand their industrial areas. Eventually the city of Dairy Valley with its annexations had an area of 8.9 square miles.

Much time was spent battling with the trustees of Cerritos College. The Junior College District had been established in 1955 but had no campus. Perhaps the Cerritos College name was chosen because it was originally intended to be in Bellflower which is located on the old Rancho los Cerritos. The trustees had their hearts set on the corner of Alondra and Studebaker where several dairies were located. They stated that the site was the least likely to suffer from flooding. Dairy Valley leaders feared that a precedent would be set that would threaten their rural zoning, that the college would grow and demand more dairyland, and that its presence would attract staff and students who would demand housing. The controversy was resolved out of court with the decision to cede the college location to the city of Norwalk and to build an eight foot high, 1200 foot long wall to mark the boundary.

Interestingly, the variance request by Bellflower Christian Schools to build Valley Christian High School on Artesia Boulevard near the western boundary of Dairy Valley passed without incident.

Non-dairy residents of the Artesia Crest tract resented the all-agricultural emphasis of the city and organized a movement to recall the city council. The result of the election in January 1957 was that not only would the council members retain their seats, but Artesia Crest would be excluded. The tract and triangular commercial area next to it were eventually annexed by Lakewood.

Other dairymen moved their operations into Dairy Valley so that by the end of 1957, the community had 400 dairies with over 100,000 cows, producing $80 million in milk products a year, plus 106,300 chickens on licensed ranches.

Much of the council's other business was concerned with requests for business locations, and for additional housing on the dairies. This was usually approved as long as it was one housing unit for a milker or family member. A number of ordinances were passed regarding illegal trash dumping, abandoned cars, and illegal calf-skinning operations that were perhaps typical of problems to be encountered in a rural area. Dairy Valley was to be clean and well kept and everyone was expected to support the annual “Fix-up, Clean-up” program with enthusiasm. One of the biggest headaches to the council was manure stockpiling, and eventually a fertilizer co-operative was established to solve the problem. A safety team checked around to see that the new county regulation requiring fences around private swimming pools was being observed. It was not much of a problem, as there were only four pools in town. Occasionally, council meetings were cancelled due to lack of business. This made up for the few that lasted late into the night.

The city and county began repairs and improvements on several of the streets. County engineers estimated that $3 million would put the community roads in “civilized” condition. Pioneer, South Street, and Artesia Boulevard were paved, two-lane roads; most of the other streets were unpaved with minimal improvements.

Work was begun in early 1957 on a much needed drainage ditch from 183rd to South Street and eventually to another ditch that connected with Coyote Creek. Drainage had been a problem every winter and sometimes there was extensive flooding. Earlier, in January 1952, people had to be evacuated by the Coast Guard from their flooded homes and Pioneer School and the Methodist Church became evacuation centers.

Sometimes it was hard to get cooperation when one dairyman would erect a levee around his own corrals that forced flood waters into the feedlots on adjoining dairies.

The city's recreation department was begun in July 1957 when John J. List was hired for $1.75 an hour to supervise a playground at Carmenita School.

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The city election in November 1958 determined that Dairy Valley would change from being a general law city to become a charter city in order to grain broader powers and local control over zoning. The city council after the second election consisted of Jack R. Bettencourt, mayor; Hal Rees, mayor pro-tem; member Jim Albers, and new members Joe A. Gonsalves and Alexander Moore. Mayor Bettencourt later resigned because of ill health and Louis Struikman replaced him on the council.

City Manager McKeown had certainly earned his pay raise from $400 to $850 a month, plus use of a car and expense accounts. With his “engineering,” Dairy Valley had annexed the area's only car dealership, S. & J. Chevrolet, as well as Olin Krum's Pioneer Mills, Barr Lumber company, Jack Stansbury Dairy Supplies, and other retail establishments that were located near the Pioneer-South Street intersection. As they were considered non-residential areas, occupants' elections were not needed for annexation. In April of 1959, the city received $30,000 in the first quarter from sales taxes, state subventions and franchises. Even billboards had become a source of revenue for fees that went into the city coffers.

Artesia was incorporated on May 29, 1959, with 1.62 square mile of area and about 10,000 population, evidently feeling that it had better act before all the businesses were nibbled away.

In July the new Cerritos College campus was ready for classes. It provided junior college facilities for the areas served by the Artesia, Bellflower, Bloomfield, Carmenita, and Norwalk-La Mirada school districts. Previously, classes had met at night on several high school campuses.

The Santa Ana Freeway finally opened for use, and while it barely touched the Dairy Valley northern boundary, it provided an outlet to the network that would become such a convenience to Southern Californians.

In 1960, Mayor Albers was threatened with recall because of a controversy over the location of a hospital that Dr. Walter T. Mullikin wanted to build in the 19900 block of Pioneer Blvd. The mayor feared that the location would have a bad effect on neighboring dairies and would result in an assessor's reappraisal and higher taxes. Years later, the hospital was built on Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia.

All the supposedly vacant land in Dairy Valley seemed to invite someone's great idea for development. At one time, it was suggested as a site for the Dodgers' new baseball stadium. Two sites between Bloomfield and Carmenita, south of Artesia boulevard and north of South Street were suggested as locations for a small plane airport by a Norwalk committee whose plans evidently didn't meet with approval by the Los Angeles Airport Commission.

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Years later, Joe Gonsalves told a Los Angeles Times interviewer how the city got a good break on the building of the city hall. It seems that city manager “Mac” McKeown had a friend who was an architect. “Mac” invited the friend for a home-cooked spaghetti dinner, and as they ate, the architect scribbled out a design for a city hall building for which he didn't charge a fee.

The building was a modern structure of green stucco with a screen of decorative blocks. It was landscaped with a small lawn and the Frampton's imposing palm trees. It housed offices for the city workers and a council meeting room that seated about seventy people.

On McKeown's advice, Dairy Valley pulled out of the county library district to save $20,000 a year. On learning that each city was required by the state to provide library services, “Mac” brought a shelf full of books from home and announced that they were there to be borrowed. Unfortunately, Paramount lured the talented McKeown away with an offer of a $20,000 a year salary and he resigned in March 1961. His replacement was William Stark.

In July, the council adopted a new business license fee schedule that seemed to cover any contingency. For example, ten to fifty cows or two hundred fifty to one thousand laying hens would be taxed $5.00 annually. Fertilizer haulers and stockpilers would pay $25, five to twenty-five acres of row crops would be charged $20, and just in case the oil company that had been drilling north of 166th near Norwalk Boulevard had any luck, oil wells would be charged $100 annually plus 10 cents per each barrel produced.

A big boost to the city was the move of Producers' Livestock Marketing Association from Los Angeles to a location at South Street and Carmenita Road. Charges per head of animals sold would be more money for Dairy Valley.

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The 10 cent per head tax on hog sales brought nationwide repercussions when it was feared that Dairy Valley's precedent would be copied by the large-volume eastern markets. The associations' lawyers had some talks with the city council and the head tax was replaced with a graduated license fee. Actually, the Dairy Valley “hog tax” had been levied to discourage local hog sales. Ordinances had been passed long before to restrict hog raising to five per farm so that no one could start large operations. The dairymen agreed that cows could get a bit smelly, but hogs were impossible to have as neighbors.

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However, by 1962, Dairy Valley had only 241 active dairies, with 53,000 cows producing 217,000 gallons of milk a day. Dairymen had been retiring or relocating to the Chino area or the Central Valley of California.

An election in July 1963 showed that the citizens were thinking of changing zoning. A political advertisement states that it was “Time to Cash-In” as land prices had risen so high that it would be best to move dairy operations elsewhere, but the election proved that many voters preferred to leave things as they were.

Because costs of government had gone up despite economies (the 1962-63 budget was $267,605), some rezoning was included in potential plans. It was thought that two retail centers and a light manufacturing area could be placed on major thoroughfares and resulting licenses and sales taxes would help the city treasury. July 2, 1963, the Dairy Valley Chamber of Commerce was founded and John Corcoran was hired as full-time manager to present the city to potential businesses.

Several large projects were underway. The first shopping center in the city was being finished for a November opening at Del Amo and Pioneer. It would feature an Alpha Beta grocery market, T G & Y variety store, and several smaller shops. Plans for master drainage systems and a water transmission system suitable for a much larger population were underway.

The Army Corps of Engineers was progressing with the containment of the San Gabriel River and Coyote Creek within concrete beds to help eliminate flooding problems, thanks to the special efforts of Congressman Chet Hollifield.

Construction was underway on the two freeways that would cut across the community, displacing some thirty-two dairies and the fertilizer co-operative, but enhancing the area's desirability for commuting homeowners.

Artesia proposed annexing the area known as Hawaiian Gardens that was south of Dairy Valley. It had gotten its name from a popular soft drink stand that had been located years before near Norwalk Boulevard and Carson Avenue. The annexation would be possible only if Dairy Valley allowed a corridor to be opened through the bottom of its “horseshoe,” but what would connect Artesia's two sections would divide Dairy Valley's and the idea was rejected. Hawaiian Gardens eventually incorporated its .46 square miles in 1964.

Joe A. Gonsalves had won the 66th District state assembly seat and left for Sacramento, so Frank Pinhiero was appointed to fill the empty position on the city council.

The first Master Plan was introduced in October 1964. It was prepared for Robert H. Grant and Company by Louis Turrini and Kenneth Outwater, planning consultants. It described the area as the “last large unurbanized region in the metropolitan area.” To make it even more desirable for development, $3 million in municipal bonds were approved for a master water line. Richard Bigler Associates was retained to do a parks and recreation master plan.

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In the 1964 election, Fred Troost was added to the city council. He had been a councilman in Artesia, but had moved with his dairy to Dairy Valley and wanted an active part in his new community. Alex Moore was mayor for 1964-65, and Jim Albers for 1965-66. The other councilmen were Frank A. Leal and Louis Struikman.