Beverly Hills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Citrus County, Florida, United States. The population was 8,445 at the 2010 census. History Sam Kellner, a Jewish businessman from New York, made a fortune in the tire business during the 1930s and 1940s, after which he went into construction and real estate development. Around 1960 he purchased 3,500 acres of land in interior Citrus County. Within a few years, Kellner began to develop the former cattle land, selling simple, single-story homes to retirees from the urban North, especially New York and Detroit. Kellner named his new venture Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills was among the first retirement-oriented planned communities in Central Florida. Like other such developments in South Florida and the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, a private company—Kellner’s Rolling Oaks Corporation—owned most of the non-residential property, including a nearby lumberyard and concrete plant. Purchasing land in a rural, inland area allowed Kellner to market the new community to working class retirees at affordable prices. Beverly Hills proved an early success, growing from 20 homes in the spring of 1962 to around 400 by the end of 1965. In 1972, the development’s population reached 4,500 residents living in 2,200 homes. In 1980, Beverly Hills Development Corp. purchased the subdivision from original developer Sam Kellner in 1980 and nine years later it was sold to Morrison Homes, the Atlanta-based home builder which ceased selling homes in the subdivision in 1999. Geography Beverly Hills is located in north-central Citrus County at . It is nearly surrounded by the community of Pine Ridge, except for a small area on the west where it is bordered by Black Diamond. County Road 491 (North Lecanto Highway) forms the northwestern edge of the Beverly Hills CDP, leading northeast to U.S. Route 41 and southwest to State Road 44 in Lecanto. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all land. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 8,317 people, 4,401 households, and 2,583 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 4,925 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 95.90% White, 1.71% African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.38% from other races, and 1.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.97% of the population. There were 4,401