State law requires local governments to have housing plans.

Under state law, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) allocates the number of affordable houses each area city must provide for low-income or very low-income residents.

Cities aren’t required to actually build the dwellings, but they must create conditions that allow lowincome housing to be constructed—via policies, zoning, regulations and general plans.

Thousand Oaks City Manager Scott Mitnick has said the city is almost at build out, which means, according to the General Plan, there’s virtually no land on which to build houses or apartments.

Because of this, the amount of housing required by SCAG in Ventura County was divided up with other cities that were still growing. It left Thousand Oaks with lower numbers than originally assessed.

A change in zoning along Thousand Oaks Boulevard to mixed use and raising the height limit of buildings to almost double what’s currently allowed would help increase property values and add new residents to the city of Thousand Oaks.

A change in the General Plan shouldn’t affect the SCAG numbers because the data the city provided to the state for future assessments in 2020 will follow what was happening in 2008.

The city at that time was considered almost at build out in its General Plan, according to community development director John Prescott.

—Nancy Needham