OXNARD : City OKs ‘Toxic’ Sign Atop House

Despite protests from local residents and members of a homeowners association, the city of Oxnard has given its official OK for a huge sign that reads “toxic” perched atop an Oxnard Dunes house.

City officials recently granted a permit to homeowner Stephen Blanchard that will enable him to keep a 44-foot-wide, 11-foot-high sign that has the word “toxic” and a poison symbol painted in black. The city issued the permit on the eve of a trial that was scheduled to decide if Blanchard would have to remove the sign from his home.

“Mr. Blanchard decided to comply with requirements of the building code on the eve of the trial,” City Atty. Gary Gillig said. “Now that the structure conforms to our requirements, as far as I’m concerned, the matter is closed.”

Gillig said that to comply with the requirements, Blanchard had to file an application for the building permit, cut a few feet off the width and height of the sign, and pay for a structural report on the sign’s safety. The building permit was issued June 17.

“This was a health and safety issue; it had nothing to do with content (of the sign),” Gillig said. “We had no desire to prosecute.”

Blanchard could not be reached for comment.

Blanchard and Linda Loie Paxton, who painted “Oxnard’s Own Love Canal” on her house, are among several homeowners in the Oxnard Dunes tract who have filed a lawsuit against the subdivision’s developers for allegedly failing to disclose that the homes were built over a toxic-waste site. The plaintiffs are also contending that the city wrongly issued building permits for the homes.

A trial on their suit is scheduled to begin Aug. 5.

Paxton said she and Blanchard built their homes in the early 1980s, but after learning about the toxic wastes buried there, they have moved out.

A state Department of Health Services study has concluded, however, that the toxic wastes pose no threat to Oxnard Dunes residents.