Oxnard Council Approves 5-Year Guideline for Housing

In adopting a five-year housing policy Tuesday, the Oxnard City Council approved the final section of a General Plan that will guide development in the city for the next 30 years.

The housing element, which was adopted by a 3 to 2 vote, requires that 45% of the housing units built in the next five years be set aside for moderate-, low- and very low-income residents.

Most of the General Plan, which has been under revision or deliberation for four years, was adopted last week and allows a population increase of 40,917 and a 130% increase in commercial development.

State law requires that cities adopt the housing element of the General Plan in five-year segments, city officials said.

The council decided earlier this month to delay adoption of the housing element to give City Manager Vernon Hazen time to discuss the policy with representatives of Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit organization that has built farm-worker housing in Moorpark and Fillmore.

The newly adopted housing plan had the support of housing and minority rights advocates, who said it will begin to address the growing need for affordable housing in Oxnard.

“If we don’t have affordable housing, we are thinking in the short-range, and it will hurt the city’s economic development,” said Victor Fontaine, a spokesman for Cabrillo Economic Development Corp.

Mayor Nao Takasugi and council members Manuel Lopez and Gerry Furr supported the housing element, while Councilwomen Ann Johs and Dorothy Maron voted against, saying it allows for too much growth.

Between 1989 and 1994, the plan would permit the construction of 3,900 housing units, including 425 units for very low-income residents, 425 for low-income residents and 600 for moderate-income residents. Another 250 units would be set aside for homeless families.

According to city officials, very low-income residents are those whose family income is less than $21,500 a year. Low-income residents make less than $34,400 annually; moderate-income residents earn less than $51,600 a year.

Maron and Johs said the city’s streets, sewers and schools cannot accommodate such a high number of units and suggested that the total be reduced to 2,500 units in the next five years.

However, Lopez and Takasugi said the policy would help provide the affordable housing that is needed to accommodate the city’s moderate- and low-income population.

“I really support this element because it’s the city’s response to a need,” Lopez said, adding that the city has for years felt it more important to build housing for high-income residents.

Furr said the city is including the 3,900 figure in the housing element to comply with Southern California Assn. of Governments housing requirements. The city staff has said it will meet later with SCAG representatives to convince them that the city cannot accommodate that much growth.

However, Johs and Maron remained skeptical.

“If we put it in there, we are married to it,” Johs said, referring to the housing figure.

There was also some disagreement over a clause that will allow the city to modify a greenbelt agreement with Ventura County and Camarillo city officials to provide for farm-worker housing in agricultural areas.

Maron said she wants the city to develop affordable housing within the city limits and not on agricultural land, where she said services such as police and fire protection may be lacking.

She said she feared that the clause would provide for the construction of labor camps rather than multifamily or single-family houses.

However, Takasugi said he supported adopting the clause because it would give the city more flexibility in addressing the shortage of affordable housing.