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Suspicion moves in next door

By Andrew Meacham
Published March 9, 2007

Keith Fox looked more like an aerobics instructor than an engineer. He wore gray sweat pants and exhorted 20 neighbors packed into his living room.

Everyone had come to hear about the mysterious house next door.

"This is directly from the zoning department," his wife told the group Saturday. "And when you guys read this, which is what happened to us, we were shocked."

"Stunned," Keith Fox added.

Diana Fox ticked off the kinds of homes that zoning allows in their Brandon neighborhood: mobile homes, bed-and-breakfasts, fraternities and farm worker housing.

Questions hung in the air. What's going on next door? Is it legal? Who lives there?

The Foxes and their neighbors on Debra Lynne Drive wanted answers. They've made their lives in Westwood, a leafy neighborhood east of Kings Avenue near W Lumsden Road. Most have lived there a decade or more.

Now they're worried. There's a new neighbor: the Bee Home assisted living facility. A man bought the four-bedroom house in June for $239,000. His niece, Marlyn Vistro, and her husband have run the home since January.

The Foxes, who have lived next door for 15 years, don't want them there.

Their worries center not so much on what they know, but what they don't know about the home and its patients. Their reasons go beyond the Bee Home to the meaning of a neighborhood itself - a place where people put down roots, raise families and move in predictable patterns.

"This has been kind of shoved down our throats," Diana Fox said. "Are we dealing with someone who is mentally disturbed and we have to be more vigilant with our children on the street? I mean, where do we sit here?"

'Just too weird'

On the other side of the Bee Home, Wally and Ginny Seward have owned their home for 33 years.

Ginny Seward met Vistro after the house changed hands.

They chatted about families. Vistro didn't mention anything about an assisted living home.

Why, Ginny Seward thought then, would they buy in June but not move in until January?

"It was just too weird," she said.

To neighbors, her tale reinforced a common impression: The house had changed hands under false pretenses.

When the Foxes found out the home was an assisted living facility, they confronted Vistro and her husband.

Complaints abound

Fox says Vistro told him the home didn't need residents' permission to operate.

"I said, 'Fine. Then we'll do what we have to do.' "

That night at 8:30, Diana Fox heard her dog barking and looked outside. There was a man in dark clothing in the new neighbors' yard. He was pacing. She called the Sheriff's Office.

Deputies came and found nothing amiss. But the Foxes were unhappy. They wanted to know who it was.

They called a code inspector and the Agency for Health Care Administration and found that the home was licensed for four patients.

They complained to a county consumer assistance unit and called County Commissioner Al Higgenbotham so often that his staff spent 20 hours on their complaints.

They pored over state law and learned that nursing homes with six or fewer patients are considered houses.

There was nothing they could do.

"The state statute allows it. The land development code allows it," said John Walker, a senior county planner. "What do they want us to do?"

Who are they?

In the Foxes' living room, a neighbor read the group a petition to have the Bee Home's license revoked.

Keith Fox urged everyone to protest the home at a County Commission meeting this week. He warned his neighbors about the possible dangers.

"I'm not waiting for my daughter to trip on a needle or some little kid to pop a pill and die right in front of me," he said.

At the Bee Home, Vistro answered the door. A practical nurse, she offered to show a reporter the home's licenses. She said she stays there 24 hours a day. And she has watched neighbors through the window passing out fliers and pointing at the house.

"I know that their concern is why we didn't ask their permission," Vistro said. "We don't have to according to the law. The zoning is clear."

Nearby, a gaunt man played a computer game. Chad Ouimette, 28, has muscular dystrophy. He likes video games, badminton and going to movies. He's one of two patients.

David Snider repaired cranes and remodeled houses before his multiple sclerosis accelerated. The 41-year-old doesn't understand the controversy.

"It's a shame these people are so unhappy with their lives that they are trying to make everyone else unhappy, too," he said.

Snider offered to talk to any neighbors who have questions about his care.

Fox said he isn't interested.

"We want to give the feeling," he said, "that they are not wanted."

Andrew Meacham can be reached at 661-2431 or ameacham@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 8, 2007, 07:51:18]