Neighbors of Exotic Bird Farm Say the Noise Is Intolerable : Ojai: Breeder Dai Leon reminds Planning Commission that her aviary is in an area classified as rural and agricultural zone.

Battle lines have been drawn east of Ojai over an area that some neighbors say is for the birds.

The neighborhood squabble pits bird breeder Dai Leon and her environmentally minded supporters against a group of Hendrickson Road residents who say her aviary has made life in their neighborhood nearly intolerable.

Leon keeps more than 100 parrots, cockatoos, macaws and other exotic birds on two jungle-like acres called “Bird in the Hand Exotic Bird Farm” behind her home.

She has bred, raised, trained and shipped birds--some on the endangered species list--to clients across the United States since 1980, and calls her work a labor of love.

But many of her neighbors have been protesting against the bird farm--and the screeching, squawking bird noises they say it generates--for just as long.

“Those birds make noise all the time. They screech in the morning, and whenever anyone disturbs them and at feeding times, too,” neighbor Julia Vinecour testified during a Ventura County Planning Commission hearing Thursday.

Glenda Jones, another neighbor testifying against the birds, added that the bird noises she has heard while sitting in Vinecour’s living room made her think she was on the set of a Tarzan movie.

“What this means is that she’s sort of living in a bird cage,” Jones said.

Responding to her critics, Leon told the Planning Commission on Thursday that her neighborhood is classified as a rural and agricultural zone, so a certain level of noise from farm activity is to be expected.

And she added that the complainants have confused the noise from her exotic birds with that from peacocks on other property and indigenous birds drawn to the area.

Furthermore, she said, the sound of farm machinery from neighboring orchards is just as irritating to her as are the bird sounds to those who are complaining.

This noise argument has raged for years. It has featured petition drives against the aviary, hours of public testimony, a slander suit filed by Leon against her detractors and most recently, county-ordered sound modifications that the neighbors say have done nothing to curb the racket.

Following Thursday’s hearing, Leon, sitting in a large room of her house filled with cast-iron cages and about 20 exotic birds, said her neighbors should applaud her efforts, rather than complaining.

Schoolchildren visit the farm to learn about ecology, and Leon regularly uses the birds for pet therapy with handicapped and disabled children and adults, she said.

More than 200 birds were hatched there last year, she said, with one pair of endangered hyacinth macaws producing 28 offspring themselves, she said.

“With the kind of product we’ve been getting lately I think we’re making a major mark on the planet,” Leon said. “There’s only five people really complaining against me, yet we have a whole planet in support of what we’re doing.”

Five of Leon’s neighbors spoke against her in the latest round of the battle of the birds Thursday, a review hearing before the Ventura County Planning Commission.

Most of their complaints centered on the sound barrier Leon built in August, 1991, at a cost of about $5,000, to modify the noise levels.

“The barrier that has been put up makes no appreciable difference,” Vinecour said. “I don’t notice any reduction at all.”

Cordine and Caroline Santoudrea, who last year bought a home that is separated from the aviary by about five acres of orange orchards, agreed.

“The wall put up was not adequate,” Caroline Santoudrea said.

“Actually, the sound wall was quite to the opposite, at least for our property, which is north of Leon’s home,” Cordine Santoudrea said. “The wall acts as a speaker to our property.”

Ironically, John Bencomo, the staff planner who researched Leon’s initial permit in 1989, said it was possible that both parties to the dispute could be correct.

“I can assure you that the existing use is in compliance with the original permit,” Bencomo said, explaining that noise readings taken from various complainants’ properties were within county guidelines.

On the other hand, Bencomo added, the bird noises could be a problem for the neighbors even if they do not exceed county noise limits.

Not all of Leon’s neighbors are against her, however.

During her testimony before the Planning Commission she presented three letters in her support, including one from her closest neighbor, Gillian Sanda, the only Hendrickson Road resident who can see the aviary.

“I personally do not find the sound of her birds obnoxious,” Sanda wrote. “The parrots sound natural, though sometimes quite loud.”

Leon said the complainants’ predisposition against the birds has led them to hear noise that is not there.

“These people have already decided they don’t like the birds . . . so they listen for it, and hear it even louder than it is,” she said.

After hearing almost an hour of testimony, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to allow Leon an opportunity to apply for a new conditional use permit.

Another public hearing will be held on the aviary before Leon’s permit expires in October and a decision is reached, Bencomo said.