Oxnard presents 2024 general plan and housing element annual progress report

Joe Pearson, planning environmental services manager for Oxnard City, presented the city's General Plan and Housing Element Annual Progress Report for the 2024 calendar year, summarizing development activity, pending general plan amendments and the city's progress toward its regional housing goals.

The report, prepared to satisfy state requirements to file an annual General Plan progress report with the Office of Planning and Research and the Department of Housing and Community Development, detailed pending and active projects, recent policy updates, and housing production numbers for Oxnard and the 2024 calendar year.

Pearson told the Oxnard City Council that the city received an allocation of 8,549 housing units under the regional housing needs assessment and that 7,408 building permits were issued during 2024. He said about 65% of units issued permits met lower- and moderate-income categories while roughly 35% were affordable to above-moderate households. The report lists 10 very-low-income units, 52 low-income units, 38 moderate-income units and 274 above-moderate units constructed or permitted in the year summarized. Pearson also cited a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development figure placing the annual median family income for a family of four in Ventura County at $125,600 for 2024, and noted that affordable housing generally is defined as housing costing no more than 30% of gross income.

The presentation catalogued four pending general plan amendments as of February 2024. The largest is the Teal Club project, a proposed specific plan and pre-zoning for annexation of a 174-acre collection of agricultural parcels to the city that would allow up to 990 residential units of varying types plus park, mixed-use and commercial space. A second pending amendment is the Northeast community sub-neighborhood plan (described in the report as the Mohart Styles project), a proposed 56-acre plan that could accommodate approximately 500 to 950 residential units and about 40,000 square feet of commercial development and would create 14 master lots; environmental review and a notice of preparation were expected to start in early 2025. The third amendment is the Rio De Valle campus expansion master plan, which would add a southern expansion to the existing middle school campus, including classrooms, athletic fields and a relocated bus facility and would require annexation because the expansion area is currently covered by SOAR; staff expected the project to move forward in 2025. The fourth pending amendment is for Fire Station No. 3, proposing demolition of the existing station and construction of a new two-story fire station with a land-use change to permit public/semi-public use.

Pearson summarized other policy and program activity in 2024: the city updated its local CEQA threshold guidelines (adopted Dec. 3, 2024) to align with state law on energy, greenhouse gas emissions, wildfire and transportation; Oxnard secured a grant from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) to prepare a transit-oriented development/high-quality transit corridor specific plan tied to program 31 of the Housing Element with a project deadline of Sept. 30, 2026; and the city signed a contract in February 2024 to begin updating its Local Coastal Program, holding a project kickoff on May 22, 2024 and targeted completion of the local coastal program update in July 2027.

Pearson said the city has placed a draft inclusionary housing ordinance on hold while it awaits an opinion requested in mid-2024 from the California Attorney General about how local inclusionary requirements interact with density bonus calculations. The report also notes Oxnard's participation with the Clean Power Alliance: in Dec. 2024 the City Council approved a Power Ready site lease to allow construction of a Power Ready system at the service center with construction planned for Feb. 2025, and the city received an Energized Communities grant from the Clean Power Alliance to support installation of electric vehicle charging for fleet or public use.

On construction activity, Pearson said several large developments approved in prior years moved into construction in 2024, including projects in the Wagon Wheel, Riverpark and Zac Eoca areas and work in the Sakyoka Farms business park specific plan area. The report noted issuance of a stockpile permit for the 101 Logistics project (four buildings totaling about 778,000 square feet) with grading permits expected in early 2025. The Riverpark specific plan area continues buildout, including recent commercial activity such as a Chick-fil-A and multi-tenant building with a drive-through Starbucks, and new hotels under construction. The city also expanded an affordable housing additive zone over roughly 63 parcels to allow 30 units per acre; projects under that program include the Lockwood Senior Apartments projects, two of which were under construction in 2024, and a project approved on a former auto-dealership site to allow approximately 234 units.

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) were a focus: the report states the city issued 251 ADU building permits and 34 ADUs were constructed and occupied in 2024. Since updates to the ADU ordinance and ongoing city promotion, Pearson said the city has issued over 600 ADU permits and 294 ADUs have been constructed during the current Housing Element cycle, exceeding the Housing Element projection of 283 ADUs by the end of the cycle.

Pearson concluded the presentation by recommending that the Oxnard City Council receive and file the 2024 General Plan and Housing Element Annual Progress Report.