Oxnard Traffic Initiative Fact Sheet

April 2008

å The Oxnard Traffic Initiative states that all intersections within a five-mile radius of a proposed development must be fixed before a project can be approved. If the intersections are not fixed and the City of Oxnard still wishes to proceed with the project, then the proposed development would have to be submitted to the voters for approval.

å The City of Oxnard has 25 deficient intersections.

å In 1995, Oxnard had five deficient intersections (deficient levels of service (LOS) are intersections that experience extensive delays in traffic). Ten years later, the number of deficient intersections grew to 25-a fivefold increase in just a decade!

å In 1993, the City of Oxnard cut traffic impact fees by 80% as an incentive for developers to build more homes. This reduced fee remained until 2007! An estimated 100 million dollars was given away to developers!

å According to a Ventura Chamber of Commerce Newsletter, the Oxnard/Ventura region has the 9th worst traffic congestion in the nation for communities with a population between 500,000 and 1,000,000.

å Oxnard currently has 2,700 homes that have been approved but have not yet been built. Plans are to add an additional 13,000 homes in the next ten years. At a density factor of five people per household, 75,000 residents will be added to the city. An estimated 150,000 more traffic trips will be added to the city’s congested streets.

å Oxnard’s 2020 General Plan (city’s blueprint for growth), called for the city to add 50,000 residents in a 30-year period. By 2007, in little more than half the time, Oxnard had exceeded that number by 20,000 residents! The Riverpark development alone will add 94,000 traffic trips per day within the next eight years!

å According to a Washington Post article in August, 2005, Oxnard is the 12th most densely populated city in the United States. Overcrowding has only worsened Oxnard’s traffic problems.

å The average commuter now looses 47 hours to congested traffic each year, eroding quality family time and individual quality of life. See U.S. News and World Report, May 7, 2007.

å According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, being stuck in a traffic jam more than doubles the risk of a heart attack within the subsequent hour.

å The Oxnard Traffic Initiative allows the residents of Oxnard to determine which large-scale residential and commercial projects will be approved!

Questions? Call Bill Terry at 488-0422 or Tim Flynn at 340-1922.