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It is located in the southwestern area of the San Fernando Valley, northeast of Calabasas and west of Tarzana. To the north Woodland Hills is bordered by West Hills, Canoga Park, and Winnetka. Running east-west through the community is U.S. Route 101 (Ventura Freeway) and Ventura Boulevard, which starts in Woodland Hills and intersects Valley Circle Boulevard.
Little is known about the Chumash Indians, who were this community's earliest recorded settlers. When the first white men rode in with the Portola Expedition in 1769 to explore the beautiful hills and valleys, they encountered the Indians and called the area the Valley of the Oaks.
Just east of Woodland Hills, in North Hollywood, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed in 1847 to end hostilities in California as part of the Mexican–American War. This cleared the way for California to be admitted to the union in 1850 as the 31st state.
Victor Girard Kleinberger bought 2,886 acres (12 km²) in the area and founded the town of Girard in 1922. He sought to attract residents and businesses by developing an infrastructure, advertising in newspapers, and planting 120,000 trees. Although his early efforts were criticized as providing only dubious facade of economic activity (local lore has it that in order to attract development he erected false store fronts on Ventura Boulevard, for which he spent time in jail), the Girard Golf Course completed in 1925 continues to operate today as the Woodland Hills Country Club, and his scheme was ultimately successful in attracting interest in the community.
In 1941, the community was renamed Woodland Hills, an appropriate name owing to all the trees that Girard had planted years earlier. Harry Warner bought 1,100 acres (4.5 km²) in the area in the 1940s for a horse ranch. The modern Warner Center commercial zone is named for Harry and features high-rise buildings, hotels, and shopping centers. A major transit hub — the western end of the Orange Line — opened here in October 2005.
The population of Woodland Hills is approximately 70,000. The area is known around "The Valley" and is known as having the warmest weather in the City of Los Angeles.