Supervisors OK Study of Turning Ojai Jail Farm Into Senior Center

A social services group will consider converting a low-security “honor farm” where inmates once raised hogs and crops into a senior center.

Help of Ojai, which is looking to expand its services to the growing elderly population, will spend the next 10 months reviewing the site and possibly returning with a formal proposal. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved the study Tuesday.

The county would retain ownership of the 117-acre property between Ventura and Ojai, but negotiate a long-term lease with the nonprofit group, said Supervisor Steve Bennett, whose district includes the Ojai Valley.

Tucked into the foothills of the Los Padres National Forest, Ojai has become a haven for well-off retirees attracted to its sophisticated cultural offerings in a rural setting. Nearly a quarter of the city’s 8,000 residents are older than 60, placing it among the top 10% of California cities with aging populations, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Those numbers are expected to climb as the first of the huge baby boom-population bubble reaches 65 in 2011, said Marlene Spencer, executive director of Help of Ojai, which provides hot lunches, transportation, senior day care and other services for the elderly.

“We want to be ready for the next generation,” she said. “We like where we are now; we’re just running out of space.”

The property had been a women’s jail and a low-security honor farm until budget cuts forced its closure in 2003. Since then, county officials and residents have floated various proposals for its use, the most controversial of which was a locked treatment center for the mentally ill.

After extensive study and a series of contentious public hearings, the county announced last year that the site was not suitable for that purpose.

Bennett, who proposed the treatment center, told his board colleagues Tuesday that Help of Ojai has an excellent track record and that he strongly supports its plans for the site. The charity, founded in 1968, serves about 6,000 Ojai Valley residents each year.

“Based on what they’ve done with social services, they deserve first crack,” he told supervisors.

The conceptual plan calls for Help of Ojai to serve as the prime tenant, subleasing space to other nonprofit groups. Help of Ojai would use about one-quarter of the jail property, with another chunk reserved for a future regional recreation area, Bennett said.

A portion of the property is currently leased by a recycler that converts yard clippings into mulch, and that lease would continue under the plan, Bennett said. Supervisors plan to reserve some of the land adjacent to the Ventura River as a dump for tons of silt behind Matilija Dam that would have to be relocated if the dam were torn down.

Supervisor John Flynn asked his colleagues to consider using a portion of the land for farmworker housing.

While farmworker housing is not part of the current plan, a portion of the land should be reserved for that possibility, he said.