Oxnard Adopts Most of Growth Plan

After more than four years of consideration and revision, the Oxnard City Council adopted most of its controversial 30-year General Plan on Tuesday.

The five council members voted unanimously to approve 10 of the 11 components of the so-called 2020 General Plan, designed to guide development in the city for the next 30 years.

“I’m pleased that after four and a half years, we’re finally buttoning it down,” Mayor Nao Takasugi said.

The city still must adopt the portion of the plan that deals with, among other things, how much housing will be set aside for low-income families. The decision was postponed to allow City Manager Vernon Hazen a chance to meet with a group called Via Campesina, which has said the plan does not provide enough low-income and farm-worker housing.

The 2020 General Plan allows the city to add 12,462 housing units in the next 30 years. The population is expected to increase from 127,721 (estimated in January, 1989) to 165,000.

It also allows an additional 416 acres to be devoted to commercial development, 1,675 acres to industrial development and 229 acres to open space.

“I believe there’s been a lot of controversy over growth and no-growth,” Councilwoman Gerry Furr said. “I feel we have a very good monitoring system that will keep us from overdoing it.”

The city plans to keep track of growth through measures such as an annual report to keep the council apprised of the pace of development in the city.

Much of the early debate over the General Plan focused on Ormond Beach, an area in the southwest corner of the city that includes some of the last undeveloped beachfront in the county. It also includes sensitive wetlands that for years have coexisted with nearby heavy industry and agriculture.

The council decided last week to restore two miles of blighted beachfront, preserve about 131 acres of wetlands and allow construction of 4,100 homes.

Council members are scheduled to discuss the rest of the plan Tuesday.