Growth/ A Special Report : Development Slows After Boom Years in the 1960s : Cities: Environmental concerns and growth control ordinances are limiting expansion in many of the county’s municipalities.

While Ventura County’s population of 668,000 people is triple that of the county 30 years ago, the county is growing at an annual rate of about 2%.

One milestone in the county’s growth came in 1960 when Caltrans finished the final link in the Ventura Freeway through the San Fernando Valley, making it possible to commute to Los Angeles from the county’s eastern cities.

In the first decade after being linked by freeway to Los Angeles, the county had the state’s second-highest 10-year growth, with a 90% population rise compared to Orange County’s 107% increase.

The county’s growth rate slowed to 40% in the 1970s and was about 21% to 23% through the 1980s, planners estimate. The slowdown occurred as growth in the eastern county subsided. Planners estimate that the county will not reach 1 million people until 2020.

This is a breakdown of growth patterns as Ventura County enters the century’s final decade:

CAMARILLO: Current estimated population is 49,504. Incorporated in 1964, Camarillo provides jobs for about half its workers, with the balance commuting elsewhere. The 1960s were its biggest growth years, averaging 107% for the decade. In 1980 the city passed a growth control ordinance, limiting new homes to 400 per year. Its physical surroundings also limit its ultimate growth, said Matthew Boden, the city’s director of community development. Boden said most growth pressure will come from the west, where fields of flowers define the city limits.

FILLMORE: With a population of 11,212, Fillmore is still a predominantly rural community surrounded by citrus groves as it was when it incorporated in 1914. Fillmore sees most new housing developments on its west end. One large new plan for about 800 houses in the east is stalled in the early planning stages. The city hopes to develop industry in town to improve its tax base. Fillmore’s first general plan, written in 1967, projected a population of up to 89,000 by 1985, but that growth never materialized.

MOORPARK: With 25,500 residents, the county’s newest city was incorporated in 1983. Since then it has increased its population fivefold to become the county’s fastest-growing city by percentage of population. The city enacted a growth control ordinance limiting building to 270 homes or apartments per year only three years into its cityhood. That prompted a rush to pull building permits, from which the housing market is still recovering. It now has building allotments in surplus and had no requests for them last year. The city is torn, its planning director said, between wanting to contain growth and needing the financial benefits growth can bring.

OJAI: With 7,950 residents, Ojai, which became a city in 1921, has the county’s most restrictive growth control law. It permits only 16 new homes per year. That will decrease to 14 per year in 2000. Ojai wants to keep its growth rate at about 0.05% per year, its city planner said. The unincorporated areas of Meiners Oaks and Mira Monte sit to the city’s west, and Oak View is to the south. The geography of the city makes Ojai the unlucky recipient of car exhaust and other pollutants that travel up the Ventura River Valley. Consequently, the city’s residents, some of them active environmentalists, oppose growth in their city as well as its surrounding areas.

OXNARD: Although Oxnard has 130,342 residents, city officials said, the 87-year-old city is unfairly described as the county’s fastest-growing city. Community Development Director Richard Maggio called Oxnard’s growth rate moderate, about 2% per year. The city would like to annex property at Ormond Beach to build 10,000 homes and a marina, and it wants to spread to the west beyond its existing sphere of influence from Patterson Road to Ventura Avenue. Planners want their city to offer more jobs to its residents, as two of every five workers hold jobs outside the city.

PORT HUENEME: A city of 21,322 residents, Port Hueneme was incorporated in 1948 and depends for the most part on the Navy for its economic base. The city will essentially grow by about 1,000 people over 10 years as it is 98% built out now, with very little vacant land inside the city limits, planners say. It cannot physically expand because it is landlocked. The city of Oxnard or its sphere of influence surrounds Port Hueneme on three sides. And to the south there is the Pacific Ocean.

SANTA PAULA: With 24,350 residents, Santa Paula is the county’s second oldest city, incorporated in 1902. In 1985, Santa Paula decided to limit its building to 124 houses or apartments per year. The city has very little developable land left, said city Planning Director Joan Kus. The city is pushing to the west against the borders of the Santa Paula-Ventura greenbelt. It is considering plans to annex and develop the 500-acre area for industry, but now has a fight from residents who want to keep industry away from their ranches.

SIMI VALLEY: Current population is 103,220. The area known as the city of Simi Valley grew 572% between 1960 and 1970. A year after it incorporated in 1969 the city had 56,469 people, according to county figures. The explosive growth came with the Ventura and Simi Valley freeways, which made it possible to commute to Los Angeles. About six of 10 workers still commute to jobs outside the city, an imbalance the city wants to correct with industrial and commercial development. Advance Planning Director James Lightfoot said Simi Valley’s growth rate will slow as the most easily developable land is taken up.

THOUSAND OAKS: There are 107,196 residents, and nearly one of every two workers commutes into Los Angeles County and other parts of Ventura County from this city at the top of the Conejo Grade. Substantially a bedroom community, its main economic base is in its retail shops, including the Oaks Mall. The city’s topography limits its ability to expand, and it is near to what its general plan designates as build-out, Senior Planner Larry Marquart said. The city is planning for the last three major tracts of land available in the city. Lang Ranch has already been annexed and is now being built. The MGM Ranch property and the Dos Vientos Ranch remained to be annexed. Together, the three sites will yield more than 5,000 homes.

VENTURA: With an estimated population of 97,000 in the city and the immediate area around it, the county’s oldest city may be the first in the county required to halt growth completely because of a lack of water. The city, incorporated in 1866, is considering moratoriums and water rationing. Even without the temporary shortage caused by the state’s drought, the city has said it would limit its ultimate population to 102,000 if the city is not able to bring in water from the state’s aqueduct.

VENTURA COUNTY POPULATION Figures for 1990, 2000 and 2010 are estimates and projections.

1980 1990 2000 2010 Camarillo 37,797 49,504 74,300 84,280 Fillmore 9,602 11,212 14,260 16,170 Moorpark 8,054* 25,500 35,740 47,080 Ojai 6,816 7,950 9,630 9,760 Oxnard 108,195 130,342 180,000 217,800 Port Hueneme 17,803 21,322 24,050 26,330 Santa Paula 20,658 24,350 27,500 30,500 Simi Valley 77,500 103,220 123,210 139,400 Thousand Oaks 77,072 107,196 126,500 135,800 Ventura 73,774 92,500 111,000 123,150 County totals** 653,609 668,741 787,770 893,770

* Estimate of the population prior to its incorporation in 1983

** Including unincorporated areas

Sources: U.S. Census, the County of Ventura and the California Finance Department