Homeowner Groups Take on New Challenges : Thousand Oaks: Associations lobby City Hall, track neighborhood development, mediate disputes and more. But some members protest the extent of their control.

Elois Zeanah moved to Thousand Oaks only to face a situation every homeowner dreads.

Her next-door neighbors had left the house in the hands of their teen-age kids, and the result was loud music, late-night parties and traffic clogging the street.

After her complaints to the city went ignored for weeks, Zeanah turned to an organization that had fallen into dysfunction in her neighborhood--the homeowners association.

Much to her surprise, the group was an influential ally.

With their help, Zeanah successfully lobbied to keep her neighbors out of the party business, in the process discovering that there is more to homeowner associations than annual dues.

Once considered a primarily business-oriented entity, responsible for maintaining property and paying insurance, homeowners associations today take on a multitude of neighborhood challenges.

To varying degrees, Thousand Oaks’ 107 homeowner groups lobby City Hall, track local development and police their areas for violations of codes, covenants and restrictions--known as CC&Rs.; Members mediate disputes, facilitate meetings between homeowners and elected officials, and even invite speakers to discuss a host of local issues.

“Today, we act as more than a mini-corporation,” said Robert Bickle, president of the Las Casitas Homeowners Assn. “We’re like a miniature City Council. We have an elected board, and we have meetings where we discuss and resolve all kinds of issues facing our neighborhood.”

And like the City Council, the homeowners groups do have their critics. While some of the groups have focused on broad issues, others anger their members with complaints about trash barrels left at the curb too long or Christmas lights that flash in the windows come Easter.

But when it comes to the larger issues, the associations have been well received by the homeowners. Like Zeanah, residents realize the power in numbers.

“One voice just doesn’t get listened to by City Hall,” said Bickle, who pushed to rid Las Casitas of street vendors. “When I realized that people in my neighborhood had the same complaints as I did, that’s when I knew we could get something accomplished.”

Zeanah felt empowered by her initial experience with her group, the Conejo Hills/Lynn Estates Homeowners Assn. It was a feeling that inspired her to push for wholesale changes in her neighborhood.

“We started with two main issues--code enforcement and street parking of oversize vehicles,” she recalled. “I wrote homeowners associations citywide, and it turned out it was a common problem. We found a vehicle to communicate with one another and we stormed City Hall.”

Eventually, Zeanah found success in that and other efforts, and parlayed her involvement in the homeowners group into a political career--she is now mayor of Thousand Oaks.

But she is not alone in witnessing the power of these groups.

Bill Murphy, a past president of the Westlake Joint Board of homeowners associations, said his group has found frequent success in battling developers since it was formed in 1971.

“We are like community watchdogs,” he said. “We see these problems come around every so often and, all of a sudden, we’re at it again, getting people together, organizing and fighting to preserve what we like about our neighborhoods.”

The most recent example of this, Murphy said, was the group’s fight against the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall sign.

“When word began to spread about what kind of sign they wanted, it was not like we had to beat the bushes for people,” he said. “People came to us. They were looking for a way to fight it, but they couldn’t do it all alone.”

The Westlake Joint Board, a coalition of about 40 homeowners groups from Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks, formed a committee to organize against the sign. And they were successful.

Homeowners on the west side of the city fought a similar battle last year over an apartment complex proposed by Shapell Industries that they said would have encroached on their gated community.

“We were furious about having to support an apartment with our dues and we wanted it moved,” recalled Ping Wong, a board member of Rancho Conejo’s homeowners association. “We went to City Hall, we fought it and we won.”

The victories of the homeowners groups have forced developers to take their concerns into account when they plan a project.

Biotechnology giant Amgen, whose five-year expansion plan was approved by the city, approached dozens of homeowners associations before completing its plans.

“We really pounded the pavement,” project manager Ed Bjurstrom said at a recent Planning Commission hearing. “We went out and solicited the opinions and critiques of 65 different groups. We’ve definitely taken the public into account.”

That approach won the cooperation of the homeowners.

“We supported their project,” said Wong, whose home is within sight of Amgen’s property. “They were very open and upfront with us. We told them that we were worried about traffic, and they said their plan would require a traffic light at our driveway if it got worse.

“We talked to them about setbacks, and they dealt with it,” Wong said. “By the time it got to the Planning Commission, we had no complaints.”

Murphy said that, as in the Amgen case, homeowners do not always end up opposed to development.

“We hate to be perceived as anti-progress,” he said. “I think when we’ve had conflicts with developers, it’s because they have tried to push the limits. Either their developments are too dense or they’re not up to codes, or something else,” he said. “That’s when we get involved.

“But,” Murphy added, “fighting development is by no means our only job.”

At the Westlake Joint Board, now headed by Thousand Oaks resident Cathy Schutz, members discuss a host of issues facing homeowners today.

“One thing we’ve been doing is bringing speakers in to talk for a few minutes about hot issues,” Schutz said.

After last fall’s fires and the earthquake in January, the group invited an expert to talk about homeowners insurance. They now plan to bring in a speaker on satellite dishes--one of the newest problems homeowners associations face.

Many of the associations in Thousand Oaks have provisions in their CC&Rs; that forbid the giant satellite dishes. And with the advent of smaller dishes, homeowners do not know if the CC&Rs; apply, Schutz said.

“Issues surrounding the CC&Rs; are difficult because the restrictions are not easily changed,” she said.

The CC&Rs; are usually in place before a development is built, according to Camarillo attorney Karen Mehl, who specializes in homeowners’ issues.

“They come with the development and set the tone for how it will look,” Mehl said. “They are considered legally binding and are very difficult to change.”

Now many groups are grappling with restrictions that may be out of date or unpopular, Schutz said. The result is that some homeowners ignore the restrictions outright.

But a number of homeowners say the real problem is not with the codes but with overly aggressive associations.

“Where I am, they have pursued a very controversial path of actively going after people for pretty trivial things,” said Frank Millar, a member of the Oakbrook Townhomes Homeowners Assn.

Millar said his homeowners group has fined people for leaving Christmas lights up too long. And, he said, they have actually checked for cobwebs under cars to determine if they are being left in driveways too long.

“I don’t mind saying that I feel the judgment of the board has been lacking,” Millar said.

Murphy agreed that there are problems occasionally, but those are usually resolved without much difficulty.

“Sometimes people have problems with the way their association is handling things, but no one wants to fight with their neighbors. Things are usually resolved pretty easily.”

Northshore Homeowners Assn. President Gene Stout said there is a reason that the associations push the owners to comply with codes.

“People understand that the better the property looks, the more valuable it is,” Stout said.

Now more than ever, he said, it is the duty of the homeowners to uphold the various codes and restrictions.

“The city just isn’t able to respond to every dog bark or unkempt driveway,” he said. “In many respects, we’ve taken on those responsibilities, and we’re doing a good job with them.”