Thousand Oaks Tries Again to Buy Land for Plaza Entry

Thousand Oaks has resurrected efforts to acquire the last piece of property needed to build an entrance to the city’s multimillion-dollar civic arts plaza, officials said Wednesday.

Councilman Alex Fiore said officials are negotiating with relatives of Mildred Heggen, who died at the age of 82 last October, to purchase a two-story house and half-acre parcel she owned at 1964 Thousand Oaks Blvd.

The city had promised Heggen in April, 1990, not to force her out of her home after she refused to accept an offer of $379,000 from the city, Fiore said. But late last year, after her death, family members contacted the city to offer the land for sale, city officials said.

“I would not support any condemnation of the property while she was still alive,” Fiore said. Now, he said, “we intend to make an offer on the property.”

The city has wanted the site since 1990, when it was developing plans to build the $63.8-million Jungleland civic center project at Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Conejo School Road.

The city wants to bulldoze Heggen’s house to make way for an entrance to the civic center, officials said. The house is next to two buildings that are scheduled to be torn down Friday.

Because of a decline in real estate values, city officials believe the land is worth less than it was two years ago.

City Atty. Mark G. Sellers said he has asked for a new appraisal in anticipation of making an offer in September or October.

The land is being held in trust for Heggen’s three children, Eugene and Robert Heggen and Sheri Heggen Skaggs.

“I’ve tried to get them to make an offer,” Sellers said. “There isn’t total agreement with the siblings as to what to do with the property.”

Eugene Heggen, the trustee for his mother’s estate, said the land is being leased to his brother, Robert, whose children are living in the house. Robert Heggen was not available for comment. However, his daughter, Dana Dickson, said her father does not want to sell the land at the price offered by the city.

Sheri Heggen Skaggs said family members are still bitter over the way the city attempted to take over her mother’s land.

Nearly 400 supporters signed petitions asking the city to leave Mildred Heggen alone after she vowed to remain in the house that her husband built in 1946. She died last year of cancer.

“I’m upset at the way (the city) has handled it all along,” she said. “Now they’re saying they want to take it for less.”

Thousand Oaks has spent nearly $21 million to buy the 22 acres of land where the new City Hall and an 1,800-seat performing arts center are being built.

City Administrative Services Manager Ed Johnduff, who is in charge of the Jungleland project, said that after Heggen refused to move in 1990, engineers designed an entrance that leads around the back of her property.

If her property is acquired, city officials would like to move the entrance farther east on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Johnduff said.

They also have been concerned that Heggen’s plain four-bedroom house and storage yard would clash if it were allowed to remain in front of the new, modern civic arts center.

“It just makes sense to me to buy it,” Sellers said. “We’re spending millions of dollars to beautify that area, and it would be silly to leave that storage yard and unsightly property in front of the civic center.”