Thousand Oaks Will Not Force Woman to Move

Thousand Oaks vowed Thursday not to force an 81-year-old woman to move from her house, which the city wanted to purchase and bulldoze to widen an adjoining road.

City officials said they met with Mildred Heggen and her attorney, James Nelson Brown, Thursday to inform her that she could stay in the house she has lived in for 42 years. They assured her that they would modify their road plans.

“The city does not intend to do anything now or in the future to make Mrs. Heggen move from her home against her will,” Mayor Alex Fiore said in a prepared statement.

After the meeting, Heggen said she still is skeptical of the city’s intentions and wants a written statement signed by the council, which officials said they will provide.

“I’m afraid they might be building a beautiful smoke screen,” Heggen said. “Maybe I’m a little skeptical, but they change their minds so often. The next council could come in and say, ‘The old girl goes.’ ”

But Fiore said Heggen has nothing to worry about. “She should be free from any concerns regardless of what she may have read in the press or heard from anyone,” he said.

Recently, the city approached Heggen and offered her $379,000 for the house so it could widen Oakwood Drive and provide better access to a proposed civic auditorium in the city’s multimillion-dollar Jungleland project, named after the wild-animal theme park that once occupied the site.

Heggen, along with her family and friends, vowed to fight to keep the house, which was built by Heggen’s late husband.

On Monday and Tuesday, Heggen’s supporters collected about 400 signatures from residents asking the city to leave the woman alone.

Heggen has said she wants to stay in the house in the 1900 block of Thousand Oaks Boulevard despite the planned development.

“My doctor, my dentist, my beauty parlor are all nearby,” Heggen said. “I want to stay put.”

Sellers said city officials want to continue meeting with Heggen.

“She wants to live there, and we’ll just try to work something out to accomplish that,” Sellers said.