Home for the Dying Ignites Protest : Opponents of the Proposed Westlake Lake Facility Urge City Council to Act

More than 100 Westlake Lake residents crowded into the Forum Theater on Tuesday night, pleading with Thousand Oaks City Council members to put a halt to Isobel Oxx’s plans to open a home for the terminally ill on the shores of their man-made lake.

“We are not afraid of death,” Doris Goetz, president of the Windward Shores Homeowners Assn., told the council. “But we do not want our noses rubbed in it every single day of our lives.”

The Westlake residents booed and hissed at the few people who spoke in favor of the facility, technically described by the state as a congregate living health facility.

Responding to the outcry, the council unanimously agreed to fire off a letter to the local licensing board expressing concerns about how the home will fit in with the residential community.

But ultimately there is little the council can do for the unhappy group; a state law prohibits the city from interfering with the licensing process for facilities such as the one Oxx is planning.

They agreed to lobby the state to change the law. But even as she cast her vote, Councilwoman Judy Lazar warned that it is highly unlikely the city will have any luck swaying the state Legislature.

“I don’t think it is going to work,” Lazar said. “The state deliberately took away our ability to enforce our regulations here.”

Oxx applied for a license from the state Department of Health Services office in Ventura last September and is only weeks away from the final review that would allow her to open the six-bed home.

At the request of frantic neighbors--who came to Tuesday’s meeting armed with petitions bearing 545 signatures opposing the facility--Councilwoman Elois Zeanah asked staff to put the item on the agenda with a recommendation of city action.

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Deputy City Atty. James Friedl said there is little Thousand Oaks can do to stop Oxx from obtaining a license to open the facility she wants to call “My Father’s Home.” He explained that the state law was enacted to prevent community discrimination against needed health facilities. The only recourse the city has, he said, is if the facility does not meet the standards for single-family residences.

Lazar, who spent Monday touring the facility with staffers from the city’s code compliance and building permits departments, said she had a few concerns about Oxx’s house.

Originally the house had four bedrooms, but several years ago a large game room was added. According to Lazar, that game room has now been converted to a fifth bedroom, with four beds and a folding partition that splits it in half.

But Lazar said city code requires any five-bedroom house to include a three-car garage. Oxx only has room for two cars in her garage. By Tuesday night Oxx had told city staffers she would convert one of the house’s other bedrooms into a lounge area to circumvent the problem.

The city will send a letter to the local state licensing agent explaining that although Oxx’s house meets city codes, the homeowner has made it acceptable by “convoluted” means. They also plan to outline concerns about parking availability on the cul-de-sac.

Oxx’s neighbors complain that they were not informed of her plans. They said they have fears about how living so close to terminally ill patients will affect their children emotionally. They also worry about medical waste making its way into the lake and that drug users may break into the facility in search of morphine and other narcotics.

The 65-year-old realtor, who is studying to become a registered nurse, came to the meeting with her adult daughter and several friends. She made an emotional appeal to the audience, telling them she had decided to create the facility in her husband’s honor. He died two years ago, at their Leeward Circle home.

“His comfort in being in a family setting by the lake is something I want to share,” Oxx said.

“There is a time to live and a time to die,” she said. “There is a time to laugh and a time to cry. We could do all of them at ‘My Father’s Home.’ ”

While the council expressed dismay at the limitations placed on them by the state, several of them did say they felt such a facility is needed in Thousand Oaks, but perhaps not in the Westlake neighborhood.

Lazar said she is sympathetic to the fears and concerns of the neighbors, but at the same time was captivated by the lakeside facility.

“The beds are facing directly out onto the lake,” Lazar said. “You can see the birds and the boats. It is really a lovely setting.”