State expectation for T.O. affordable housing downsized, thanks to Mitnick
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

A battle between the city of Thousand Oaks and the state of California was avoided when City Manager Scott Mitnick and other city officials from Ventura County came to an agreement on the number of affordable homes each city could accommodate.

The number of additional affordable homes required by the Ventura Council of Governments could have exceeded what the city's General Plan could accommodate and thus trigger a Measure E vote. Because of Measure E, a vote is required by Thousand Oaks residents before such changes are made to the city's General Plan. If this had occurred and residents hadn't agreed by ballot to a change in the General Plan, a fight would have erupted between the rights of Thousand Oaks residents and the power of the state.

California law requires local governments to have housing plans called Regional Housing Needs Assessments submitted by July 8, 2008. These plans will be in place until 2014, when they're reassessed. By state law, the Southern California Association of Governments allocates the number of affordable houses each city must provide for low and very lowincome people.

Cities aren't required to build the new houses, but they must have policies, zoning and other conditions necessary in place so such housing could be developed, explained Jeff Specter, senior planner for the city of Thousand Oaks.

In a previous SCAG preliminary total housing needs report, Thousand Oaks was assigned 1,081 houses.

"That was a comfortable number for us," said community development director John Prescott.

But other cities complained about the numbers that they had been assigned, Prescott said.

As a result, in November a subcommittee of VCOG figured out a new way to determine the number of affordable homes required by each city. The new method required T.O. to accommodate 5,408 additional affordable homes, a number that sparked a debate during the Dec. 5 Thousand Oaks City Council meeting.

At that meeting, Councilmember Jacqui Irwin called the subcommittee's methodology ludicrous.

"I think it is really terrible the state is trying to thrust these numbers down our throat," she said.

"The state, for whatever reason, is not approaching it in a way that makes sense from a local government planning perspective," Specter said during the council meeting. "And the local governments are the ones that have to provide the services, make sure land uses are compatible and consistent with each other, and I don't think it serves anybody to develop a large amount of housing in an area not designed to accommodate it."

If environmental and transportation concerns are also ignored, Specter said, the result could be long-term problems.

The past growth of large Thousand Oaks communities such as Dos Vientos and Lang Ranch was also not considered in the determination of housing needs. Other cities are just beginning to get the growth spurt Thousand Oaks has experienced.

As city officials researched the city's options, including what could have been the long process of a legal appeal, Mitnick, other city managers and county executives met on Jan. 8 for 2½ hours.

"People stretched and negotiated," Prescott said.

After the meeting, the number projected for T.O. amounted to 2,100. On Jan. 9, VCOG met and accepted the new numbers from the city managers' meeting.

"There was a lot of give and take. It was a challenge," said Mitnick.

It's unknown what will happen in 2014. The city manager already considers Thousand Oaks at buildout, with very little land left for development, he said.