What should life in Thousand Oaks be like over the next 25 years? Now's your chance to say

How do Thousand Oaks residents envision the quality of life in the city for the next 25 years?

What decisions do they think the city should make about housing and open space? Economic development and public safety? Noise, air quality and arts and culture?

The city wants residents' input on those and other topics as it conducts the first-ever comprehensive update of its general plan, which was adopted in 1970, six years after the city incorporated in 1964.

The update will shape life in the city until 2045.

A general plan serves as a city's blueprint for future land use and development decisions and is a key tool for shaping and improving the quality of life for residents and businesses, city officials say.

The comprehensive update, a two-year process that is expected to take until 2021 to complete, is called "Thousand Oaks 2045: Rooted in Community," to reflect the importance of residents' input.

Authorized by the City Council earlier this year, the update "will result in a new 25-year citywide plan ... that preserves the wonderful and unique characteristics of the city – its suburban character, verdant hillsides, amazing schools and a strong sense of community – while creating a more prosperous, unique and sustainable Thousand Oaks," officials say.

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"The general plan, in its most fundamental sense, is a vision of the future based on local values and priorities," said Mark Towne, Thousand Oaks community development director.

The State Office of Planning and Research recommends that general plans be comprehensively updated to reflect changes in community values, economic conditions and emerging issues and challenges, according to a website devoted to the update, toaks2045.org. 

And indeed, Thousand Oaks has changed tremendously in the nearly 50 years since the general plan was developed.

In 1970, for instance, Thousand Oaks' population was 34,500 and 79% of the city was vacant land.

Today, the population is 130,000 and 5% of the city is vacant land.

The 1970 plan focused on growth, while today, community needs are sustainability and maintenance, city officials say. Furthermore, the 1970 plan does not address current emerging issues such as affordable housing and technology, they note.

The updated general plan, as did the 1970 plan, will carry significant legal weight, said City Attorney Tracy Noonan.

"Every decision the City Council makes has to be consistent with it," she said.

Public input 'heart' of update

Towne said "the heart" of a general plan update is public input.

"What is important to the community in terms of preserving and in terms of enhancing," he said.

Noonan said, "It's 100% community driven."

Toward that end, the city, in conjunction with its lead consultant on the project, Raimi and Associates, is holding a series of public workshops for residents to share their vision of Thousand Oaks' next 25 years.

The next workshop, a "pop-up" event, which is basically a staffed booth or table with literature for the community about the update, is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sunday at the city's annual Rotary Street Fair on Moorpark Road between Hillcrest Drive and Wilbur Road. 

The next "pop-up" event will be Oct. 26 at 1 p.m. at the Tarantula Hill Brewing Co., 244 Thousand Oaks Blvd.

More workshops, including larger, traditional ones, as well as community forums and focus group meetings, will be held during the two-year updating process, the city says.

Residents, though, don't have to wait for a workshop to weigh in on the update. They can take an online survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/TO2045-Survey1, which is part of toaks2045.org.

"I can't overemphasize how important it is for community engagement on this," Noonan said.

Assistant City Manager Ingrid Hardy said residents might not understand why their input is so important.

"For the average citizen, I think there's a challenge in connecting," she said. "'What does this really mean to me? Why does it matter?'

"So you'll hear us talking a lot about, 'Come share your vision. This is your vision. Your future. Your community,'" she said. "'What do you like and love about Thousand Oaks? Let's get excited about what do we need to do as a community for the next 25 years.'" 

Noonan said the city also wants to know what residents want to change about it.

Topics update will address

The general plan update will address nine state-mandated topics: air quality, circulation - essentially how residents get around the city using private vehicles or public transit - conservation, housing, land use, noise, open space, safety, and a new one, environmental justice, Towne said.

"Environmental justice means ensuring that environmental impacts don't disproportionately affect lower income neighborhoods," he said.

The general plan update will also address six optional topics: arts and culture, climate change, community design, economic development, equitable and resilient communities and healthy communities, he said.

The State Office of Planning and Research recommends that a city do a comprehensive general plan update every 10-15 years.

But Thousand Oaks hasn't done one for nearly 50 years.

Towne said that's primarily because the 1970 general plan, elements of which the city has periodically updated, "has served the city well over the years.

"And the updates of individual plan topics were adequate to maintain their currency," he said. "But as the community continued to evolve, I think there was a growing realization that we had to look at all these topics at the same time." 

Another factor in doing a comprehensive update now is new state guidelines for general plans published in 2017, he said. The previous state guidelines were published in 2003, he said.

"And the new guidelines have new standards, new requirements, new topics that need to be addressed for general plan updates," he said.

The general plan update must be approved by the City Council by October 2021, because that is when the latest housing element update is due, Noonan said. Under state law, a city's housing element must be updated every eight years.

The general plan comprehensive update will cost about $1.5 million, paid for primarily from the city's general fund, Towne said.

For more information and to subscribe for updates on the general plan revision process, go to toaks2045.org. The general plan updating process can also be followed on Twitter and Facebook at @toaks2045.

The general plan updating team can be contacted by email at GP@toaks.org.

Mike Harris covers the East County cities of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, as well as transportation countywide. You can contact him at mike.harris@vcstar.com or 805-437-0323.

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