Inn an Uproar

OJAI —  Where else but Ojai would a five-room bed and breakfast inn in an existing luxury home be seen as the precursor to untrammeled development and a threat to a cherished rural lifestyle?

But then there are few cities akin to this notoriously growth-conscious community.

A proposal to open what is dubbed the Valley View Inn on a large plot in a quiet neighborhood has nearby residents worried about traffic blighting their narrow country road and the unwelcome precedent that could lead to other businesses setting up shop there.

City officials insist cars driven by bed and breakfast guests would hardly clog the street and would equal the traffic generated by about three new homes.

And project backers insist the business will bring in enough money to enable them to stave off development of the 12-acre parcel that the 6,700-square-foot home once owned by the heiress to the Jergen’s toiletries fortune sits upon.

No matter.

Dozens of people have signed petitions on either side of the issue. And some premature advertising, along with a proposal for special events drawing as many as 150 people, further ignited neighborhood suspicions.

All of this ensures a lively debate tonight when the Ojai Planning Commission decides whether to approve what would become only the city’s second operating bed and breakfast.

“This is the first time that we’ve had a bed and breakfast proposal create controversy,” said Planning Director Bill Prince. “I didn’t think that we anticipated this degree of neighborhood opposition largely because a bed and breakfast in an existing building with five rooms didn’t seem any more impacting than a large family with teenagers driving cars.”

For the home’s owner, the proposal seemed a perfect fit for a community whose economy is largely dependent upon the tourists flocking to the area for the same reason most residents live there--its unsullied beauty.

Julie Westerfield--the daughter of heiress Marian Kelly--along with a childhood friend decided to open the stunning home at the top of Signal Street as a bed and breakfast after unsuccessfully trying to sell the property.

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Taxes forced Westerfield to sell most of her mother’s estate after her death 2 1/2 years ago and she was determined not to do the same to the home she grew up in, said her friend and business partner, Karen Abernathy.

The home boasts a pool, sauna, marble bathrooms and even a miniature nine-hole golf course perched on a hill just half a mile from downtown and near the trail heads of several popular hiking paths. Room rates would range from $125 to $285 a night.

“Look at that view,” Abernathy said as she sat on the home’s veranda, the Ojai Valley falling away behind her. “That is Ojai at its best. . . . I didn’t understand the opposition because this is a way to keep it natural.”

Indeed, most potential buyers eyed the land for the five homes that could theoretically be built upon it, despite the city’s strict residential growth controls, she said.

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Some neighbors also worry their opposition to the bed and breakfast now could lead to even less desirable development later.

But most are opposed to the project almost as a matter of principle.

“Our position is commercial activity should not be in residential zones,” said neighbor Bill Miley. “It changes the character of the residential zone. . . . I’m worried about the possibility it might happen again and again and again.”

City planners reject that argument, saying that each proposal is unique.

Neighbors also point out that the safety of cyclists, hikers, people pushing baby strollers and equestrians en route to the nearby trails could be threatened by drivers unfamiliar with what they say is already a risky country road.

Indeed, resident Joy Grove would rather see more homes built than the bed and breakfast open.

“We already have a whole bunch of people up there on weekends,” she said. “I’m for people who have the pride of home ownership rather than visitors who really don’t give a damn.”

Perhaps the worst damage to the proposal was done by city planners. Bowing to a state environmental law that said any project must plan for a worst-case scenario, planners noted as many as 150 people and 100 cars could be drawn to special events.

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That had neighbors envisioning rowdy outdoor rock concerts and activities that Abernathy said she too would have opposed.

The provision actually addressed the possibility that inn guests may use the facility for occasional dinners and other gatherings that the inn could offer for a fee in addition to nightly room rates, Abernathy said.

The bed and breakfast operators have since withdrawn the idea in a not altogether successful effort to allay community concerns.

Neighbors’ suspicions were further aroused when Abernathy, anticipating city approval, ran an ad promoting the bed and breakfast in a once-a-year Chamber of Commerce publication.

All this has a group of about 20 residents digging in their heels and fighting the project.

Still, the sentiments of some opponents have been swayed by a series of open houses that enabled them to visit the expansive home and meet its owners.

Malchia Olshan, who initially signed a petition against the bed and breakfast, signed another petition backing the idea Tuesday after visiting the house.

“The whole thing was started off poorly,” she said. “This is such a crazy town.”