OXNARD : Flynn Urges Local Home for Veterans

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn on Wednesday proposed converting the St. John’s Regional Medical Center on Oxnard’s F Street into a convalescent home for veterans once the hospital moves into new quarters in east Oxnard in September.

“A veterans home seems like a good idea,” Flynn said. He said he pitched the idea last month at a meeting of a state commission seeking a Southern California site for a veterans home. California has only one veterans home and it is in Napa Valley, he said.

But hospital officials are considering another proposal by the Weissman Group, a Northridge developer, to raze the old hospital and build 275 to 300 housing units for seniors in a 15-acre gated community.

That plan would require a change in the Oxnard General Plan and must still be approved by the Oxnard Planning Commission and City Council, said Rita Schumacher, a hospital spokeswoman. She said such approval would take at least six months.

The housing plan was one of seven development proposals received by the F Street Task Force, a committee appointed by hospital administrators in 1989 to study potential uses for the hospital grounds.

“We would like to follow through with the senior housing proposal,” Schumacher said. “If for some reason it doesn’t come through, we want to look at alternate proposals, and (a veterans home) seems to have merit.”

James Reach, who lives near St. John’s and organized a meeting in February where neighbors raised questions about the senior housing project, said the residents wanted to hear about other options.

“Razing the whole building may not be the best option, but we don’t know yet,” he said.

Reach said he was troubled by the participation of Jack Stewart in the Weissman housing proposal. Stewart was Oxnard’s economic development director eight years ago when the city created the industrial district where the new St. John’s facility will open, Reach said.

“Now he’s coming back and is going to make a profit on St. John’s move,” Reach said.

Stewart could not be reached for comment.