Carmel Valley

Kumeyaay history in this area goes back about 7,000 years. A village called Ahwel-Awa was the ancestral home of the Kwitlp clan. Some clan members converted to Catholicism in the 1770s. The Portolá expedition of 1769 described a large village on the site.

After Mexican independence, land grants to ranchers displaced many Kumeyaay people. The area became known locally as Cordero, after the Cordero family. After the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush, the valley was used for farming and horse farms.

The name comes from the Sisters of Mercy, who started a dairy farm and monastery here in the 1900s. In the 1940s Robert Stevens renamed the farm Mount Carmel Ranch. The name then spread to the whole valley.

The City of San Diego formed the community on February 27, 1975. Its 1974 master plan used the working name North City West. Residents voted in the name Carmel Valley in 1991.

Construction began in 1983, when farms gave way to housing. The city had formed the community in 1975, eight years earlier.

Torrey Highlands, the easternmost part of Del Mar Mesa, is counted as part of Carmel Valley.

Carmel Valley belongs to what planners call San Diego's North City edge city. That is a major employment center outside the downtown core. A 2019 office market report put the combined Del Mar Heights and Carmel Valley submarket at more than 4.4 million square feet of office space.

For comparison, the same report listed the University City area at over 9 million square feet and the Sorrento Mesa and Sorrento Valley area at over 9 million. Torrey Pines was listed at over 2.6 million. Carmel Valley sits between these centers, close to Interstate 5.

Schools here are shared between several districts. For kindergarten through sixth grade, the northern part of the community is in the Solana Beach School District and the southern part is in the Del Mar Union School District.

The San Dieguito Union High School District covers the whole community for middle and high school. Parts of the surrounding area are in the Poway Unified School District, which runs Westview High School. Several private and religious schools also operate in the area.

Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve runs along the southern edge of Carmel Valley. The preserve stretches approximately 7 miles (11 km) and covers some 4,000 acres (16 km2). It is owned and run jointly by the City of San Diego and the County of San Diego.

It holds more than 500 plant species and more than 175 kinds of birds. Mule deer, bobcats and coyotes are commonly seen. The preserve also has a waterfall and a restored adobe from the early 1820s that belonged to Rancho Santa Maria de Los Peñasquitos.