palo alto neighborhood guide · property nerds® at compass
Ventura, Palo Alto Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
The grid between El Camino Real and the Caltrain tracks from Page Mill Road to Meadow Drive: modest postwar houses, apartments, Boulware Park, and a 1918 cannery at the center of the North Ventura plan.
Ventura by the numbers
ventura by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Ventura: El Camino Real to the tracks, Page Mill Rd to W. Meadow Dr (city neighborhood outline). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in ventura · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Ventura
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Ventura from the MLS, updated automatically, with a map of the neighborhood outline.
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Listings come from MLSListings and other MLSs through IDX and show their listing brokerage; confirm details with the listing agent. The map outline is the neighborhood boundary used by our listing search (Ventura: El Camino Real to the tracks, Page Mill Rd to W. Meadow Dr (city neighborhood outline)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Ventura came to be
Ventura grew up on the southern edge of old Mayfield, and for its first decades it had more streets than houses. A 1941 aerial photo shows its grid of streets already laid out but few houses on them, with industry such as the Bayside Canning Company near the railroad tracks, according to a 2019 historic-resources memo prepared for the city. Thomas Foon Chew opened that cannery in 1918; its 73,000-square-foot building at 340 Portage Avenue was once among the nation's largest fruit canneries and later housed Fry's Electronics.
Houses came after World War II. Postwar tract homes filled the empty streets, and aerial photos show Ventura's residential lots largely built out by the 1960s. On Olive Avenue, 17 of the surveyed older houses date to 1946. The former cannery reopened in May 2026 as a refurbished, all-electric commercial building wrapped in a mosaic mural made with Chew family photos, and the City Council voted in 2025 to rename Portage Avenue as Thomas Foon Chew Avenue.
The cannery site anchors the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan, adopted by the City Council on August 5, 2024, for about 60 acres between Page Mill Road, El Camino Real, Lambert Avenue and the Caltrain tracks. As studied in its environmental review, the plan allows up to 530 more homes over roughly 20 years, buildings up to 65 feet, at least 2 acres of new public open space and a fully naturalized Matadero Creek with a 100-foot riparian buffer, while reducing office space. Under a 2023 development agreement, the Sobrato Organization plans 74 townhomes across from the cannery, and the city plans about 100 below-market-rate apartments and a public park elsewhere on the site.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
Ventura is a grid. Park Boulevard runs the length of it, with Ash and Birch streets alongside in the north. Near Page Mill Road the cross streets are Lambert, Portage, Olive, Pepper, Acacia and Chestnut avenues; farther south come Fernando, Margarita, Matadero and Wilton avenues and Orinda Street, then Ventura Avenue and Ventura Court, Curtner Avenue, El Camino Way, Second Street, Maclane Street, Wilkie Way and West Meadow Drive. Matadero and Barron creeks both cross the neighborhood.
The houses are mostly modest. In the North Ventura survey area, the city's historic consultants found mostly stucco one- and one-and-a-half-story houses with simple gable roofs, small front porches and attached one-car garages, and nearly all the houses on Olive Avenue follow three or four plans. Elsewhere you'll find some 1920s houses, two-story rebuilds and plenty of apartment buildings; Palo Alto Weekly's 2018 profile described relatively small lots along narrow streets.
Zoning changes block by block. The city's GIS layer shows R-1 single-family blocks (Orinda Street and Margarita, Chestnut, Fernando and Wilton avenues in the middle, and the Wilkie Way, Second Street and Maclane Street area in the south), multifamily zones along Curtner and Ventura avenues and El Camino Way, commercial zoning along El Camino Real, and industrial and research zones along Park Boulevard and near Page Mill Road, where the North Ventura plan now sets the rules. The same city maps put a large share of Ventura, especially along Park Boulevard, inside the mapped 100-year flood area tied to the creeks.
streets in ventura
- Park Boulevard
- Ash Street
- Birch Street
- Lambert Avenue
- Portage Avenue (Thomas Foon Chew Avenue)
- Olive Avenue
- Pepper Avenue
- Acacia Avenue
- Chestnut Avenue
- Fernando Avenue
- Margarita Avenue
- Matadero Avenue
- Wilton Avenue
- Orinda Street
- Ventura Avenue
- Ventura Court
- Curtner Avenue
- El Camino Way
- Second Street
- Maclane Street
- Wilkie Way
- West Meadow Drive
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Ventura
- park
Boulware Park
A 1.5-acre park on Fernando Avenue with basketball courts, playgrounds, picnic tables, BBQ grills and walking paths. Its expansion and renovation was finished by April 2025. It is named for John Wesley Boulware, a Mayfield farmer and county supervisor who helped lay out Embarcadero Road.
- landmark
Ventura Community Center
The former Ventura elementary school at 3990 Ventura Court, closed by the school district in 1989. In 2018 it housed several preschool and child-care programs.
- landmark
340 Portage Avenue cannery building
The 1918 Bayside cannery building, refurbished as an all-electric commercial building in 2026, with a mosaic mural by artist Kyungmi Shin on the exterior.
- shopping
California Avenue and El Camino Real
The car-free California Avenue district is just north across Page Mill Road, and El Camino Real's businesses line the west edge.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Ventura is in the Palo Alto Unified School District. No PAUSD school operates inside the neighborhood today; the old Ventura elementary school closed in 1989 and is now the Ventura Community Center. PAUSD assigns schools by address and attendance boundaries change, so check the exact address with the district before you rely on a particular school.
Getting around
- California Avenue Caltrain station is about 0.25 mile from the north edge and about 0.8 mile from the center; San Antonio station in Mountain View is about 1.2 miles from the south edge (straight-line, approximate).
- VTA Route 22 and Rapid 522 run along El Camino Real on the west edge.
- Oregon Expressway leads east to US-101 and Page Mill Road west to I-280.
- Park Boulevard is a city bike boulevard, planned to run from Castilleja Avenue near Paly south toward Wilkie Way.
- Meadow Drive crosses the Caltrain tracks at grade at the southeast corner; the city is studying an earthen berm or a podium-style hybrid design to separate road and rail there.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Ventura: what we check
Buying here
- Check the FEMA flood zone for the exact address, ask for an elevation certificate, and get a flood insurance quote early; much of Ventura sits in the city's mapped 100-year flood area.
- Confirm the parcel's zone. R-1, R-2, multifamily, commercial and industrial lots sit close together, and the North Ventura plan sets its own rules near Page Mill Road.
- Look up what's planned nearby. The North Ventura plan allows buildings up to 65 feet and hundreds of new homes, and the Meadow Drive rail crossing design could change traffic at the south end.
- On postwar houses, check the foundation, electrical capacity and sewer lateral, and note that many have only a one-car attached garage.
- If you're weighing an ADU or SB 9 project, ask the city how flood-zone rules and the parcel's zone affect height and layout.
Selling here
- Have the flood zone determination and any elevation certificate ready; buyers here will ask.
- State the parcel's zone and any ADU or second-unit potential in the listing materials.
- Give measured distances to California Avenue Caltrain, Boulware Park and California Avenue.
- Pull permits for any additions or garage conversions, and disclose anything unpermitted early.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Ventura questions, answered
What are Ventura's boundaries?
Page Mill Road and Oregon Expressway on the north, Alma Street and the Caltrain tracks on the east, West Meadow Drive on the south and El Camino Real on the west.
What is the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan?
A plan the City Council adopted on August 5, 2024, for about 60 acres between Page Mill Road, El Camino Real, Lambert Avenue and the tracks. As studied, it allows up to 530 more homes over about 20 years, buildings up to 65 feet, new public open space and a naturalized Matadero Creek.
What happened to the Fry's Electronics site?
The 1918 cannery building at 340 Portage Avenue was refurbished and reopened in May 2026 as an all-electric commercial building. Sobrato plans 74 townhomes across the street, and the city plans about 100 below-market-rate apartments and a park elsewhere on the site.
Is Ventura in a flood zone?
A large part of it is inside the city's mapped 100-year flood area tied to Matadero and Barron creeks, especially along Park Boulevard. Check the current FEMA map for any specific address.
How far is Caltrain from Ventura?
California Avenue station is about a quarter mile from the north edge and under a mile from most of the neighborhood (straight-line, approximate).
next door
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