OJAI : Art Students Depict Meadow Where Subdivision May Grow

Art students at Nordhoff High School in Ojai have spent the last two weeks commemorating their outdoor studio, a 26-acre meadow and eucalyptus grove they fear will disappear with the proposed development of 50 new houses.

The fate of Besant Meadow, on Besant Road behind the high school, has been disputed for the past four years since John Schuck of Franciscan West Developments proposed building 50 houses there.

Last year, Schuck won a lawsuit against the county over his right to subdivide the meadow. The County Board of Supervisors has appealed the ruling, maintaining that Schuck applied to develop the property after the county ordered a ban on new subdivisions that would add more traffic to California 33.

Although Schuck has promised to leave 75% of the eucalyptus trees, “it won’t be the same,” said Tanya Langkopf, 16, a Nordhoff junior.

Art teacher Linda Taylor said many Nordhoff students were unaware of plans to subdivide the meadow until recently.

“It’s beginning to hit home to them that the meadow might not be there next year,” Taylor said.

In the last five years, Taylor has led at least 1,000 students, sketch pads in hand, across the school’s football field into the grove of 30 eucalyptus trees that ring the meadow on Besant Road.

“Last year, we were sitting real still and drawing when a coyote ran right through the middle of the circle,” Taylor said.

Friday, students made sketches and paintings on handmade recycled paper that carry lasting impressions of gathered leaves and native meadow grasses.

Selections of the students’ work will be featured at a reception Sunday at the Ojai Center for the Arts.

The landscape show, a fund-raiser for the art center, runs through June 30 at 113 S. Montgomery St., Ojai.