“All of Los Angeles’s beach communities are so congested and they’re surrounded by tourists,” said Ms. Pugrad, an accounting manager for Snap Inc., the company that developed Snapchat. “Playa del Rey has a huge beach that felt untouched. It shot to the top of our list.”

The couple landed in a 1,300-square-foot townhouse with two bedrooms, two baths and a bonus room, with access to a gym, pool and tennis courts. Their double-pane windows block out the noise from LAX, and on the weekends, they say, they love staying local.

“My job can be stressful,” said Mr. Bullock, a contracts manager for a number of tech companies. “Living in the neighborhood, I’ve noticed a difference in terms of staying grounded.”

Mr. Bullock and Ms. Pugrad have been dating for seven years. Both are well acquainted with the adjacent community of Playa Vista, where planned live-work-play communities and campuses for Google, Verizon and YouTube have sprouted up in two decades of frenzied development. Playa del Rey, Mr. Bullock said, is the antithesis of all that.

“The reasons we moved to Playa del Rey are the same reasons we would never want to move into a tech-impacted community like Playa Vista,” he said. “We share the same admiration for Playa del Rey as the people who have lived here for many years. We definitely don’t want to change it.”

Image Prince O’Whales, a quintessential Southern California dive bar, is a favorite among locals in Playa del Rey. Credit... Adam Amengual for The New York Times

What You’ll Find

In August 2018, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to block the construction of the Legado 138 project, a mixed-use complex comprising 72 apartment units and 7,500 square feet of commercial space along Culver Boulevard. It was a huge win for local advocates, who had spent months campaigning against the proposal, arguing it would trigger a development rush and imperil the culture of Playa del Rey.