Report: Thousand Oaks Must Build 2,500 Housing Units by 2029

Southern California Association of Governments has found that Thousand Oaks must erect 2,578 homes by 2029. Per a Thousand Oaks Acorn report, SCAG – the agency responsible for distributing housing requirements to fulfill state mandates – has determined that the Southern California region must build just over 1.3 million housing units in the next cycle, which starts in 2021 and runs until 2029. Of those, Ventura County must fulfill 24,088 in housing units. During the last cycle, which launched in 2013, Thousand Oaks was required to allow for 255 new housing units, or 10 percent of the current requirement. According to City Manager Andrew Powers, while 2,500 in Thousand Oaks may seem like a staggering figure to be responsible for, other Ventura County communities, such as Ventura and Oxnard, have a larger number to develop. Oxnard, which spans 39 square miles with a population of 209,879, must create 8,529 new units while Ventura, a 32-square-mile city with a population of 108,170, has to create 5,260 units. In other parts of Ventura County, 42-square-mile Simi Valley, with its population of 127,716, must provide for 2,681 new homes, while 13-square-mile Moorpark and its 37,020 residents must accommodate 1,287 units. While the cities themselves do not have to build their assigned number of housing units, they do have to ensure that there will be zoning and fees that allow for — and do not discourage — housing development. The aim of SCAG is to ensure that cities and counties plan enough housing to accommodate all economic strata. Each local government must update the housing element of its general plan to reflect where said locations could be established. Cities that fail to meet the numbers may face litigation from the state. In January, Gov. Gavin Newsom, in an unprecedented move, announced that the state would take legal action against the city of Huntington Beach for willfully obstructing housing production.