Thousand Oaks council candidates face off in first election forum

Newbury Park voters got their first side-by-side look at the candidates vying for three Thousand Oaks City Council seats on Sept. 17, when the Greater Conejo Chamber of Commerce hosted its traditional candidates forum at California Lutheran University's Lundring Events Center.

The event, held in collaboration with CLU and the Acorn Newspapers, drew a roomful of spectators and featured candidates for City Council Districts 1, 2 and 3 as well as Ventura County Community College District Area 3 candidates. CLU political science professor Dr. Haco Hoang and Becca Whitnall, editor of the Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley Acorn newspapers, served as moderators, according to the Thousand Oaks Acorn (Newbury Park).

The stakes are notable this year: November's election will be the first in which council members for Districts 1, 2 and 3 are elected by district rather than at large, a shift that took effect after 2024 when all registered Thousand Oaks voters chose the council collectively.

Housing dominates the discussion

Development and growth led the night's conversation, with candidates acknowledging rising housing costs and pressure from the state to approve more construction. There was broad agreement on one principle: directing new growth to already-planned areas such as Thousand Oaks Boulevard, consistent with the city's General Plan.

Councilmember and business owner Mikey Taylor, running in District 1, said he wants to see more housing along the 101 Freeway corridor and Thousand Oaks Boulevard to protect established neighborhoods. "Something that makes Thousand Oaks very unique is that almost half of our city is protected open space, about 42%," Taylor said. "The only question that we have to answer is, 'Where is this housing going?'"

His opponent, Karen Arreola, a former Amgen employee, said there is no shortage of "luxury housing" locally and argued the city should focus on the lower-income and affordable housing identified in the state-mandated Housing Element of the General Plan. She also called for a data-driven review of the corridor. "I want a full cumulative assessment along the safety corridors of our risks and vulnerabilities of all the development that has gone on up and down the boulevard or the 101," she said.

In District 2, candidate Gus Gougas — a former chair of the Thousand Oaks Community Funding Review Committee and a travel agent and part-owner and director of the Pickleball Athletic Club — credited the city with doing a "pretty good job" identifying strategic sites such as the former Kmart site and Timber School, while pushing for more local control over how much housing gets built, and where and when.

His opponent, Kyle Rohrbach, who serves on the board of TOArts and on the city's Community Funding Review Committee, framed the issue as a "workforce affordability crisis," pointing to his own experience: the apartment he first rented in the area cost $1,400 a month 14 years ago and now rents for $3,100.

District 3 Councilmember David Newman, facing challenger Victor Hayek, said the city's unmet need is specifically moderate- and lower-income housing. "No one looks at Thousand Oaks and says, 'You know, that place doesn't have enough luxury housing,'" Newman said.

Hayek, deputy superintendent of business services for the Conejo Valley Unified School District and a four-year member of the General Plan Advisory Committee, described the recently updated General Plan as community-driven and said it should guide where housing goes. "We're a successful community because we're planned," Hayek said. "This is what we need to do: stick to the plan."

Downtown project draws support — with conditions

All candidates said they generally support the city's recently approved downtown project, which will bring residential and commercial development to the area just west of the Civic Arts Plaza, though several attached caveats.

Taylor called it an appropriate place to concentrate housing and create a true town square. Arreola supports the project but wants it "scaled down," with better public outreach and more protections for ridgeline views. Rohrbach raised concerns about engagement and outreach, while Gougas pointed to congestion that needs addressing.

Newman said the project would help manage growth, address population loss and add condos that promote equity. Hayek, viewing the project through a fiscal lens, said he wants to ensure it is financially sustainable.

Public safety and wildfire readiness

All candidates said the city must do more to prepare for a future crisis on the scale of the Woolsey Fire and keep public safety a top priority. Taylor, Newman, Hayek and Rohrbach all emphasized readiness concerns, the Acorn reported — an issue with particular resonance for Newbury Park residents who lived through the 2018 fire and the Hill Fire that threatened the community the same week.

Why district elections matter in Newbury Park

The move to by-district elections means residents will vote only for the council candidate seeking to represent their own area, rather than the whole city. That change can amplify neighborhood-specific concerns — for Newbury Park voters, issues such as open-space preservation, wildfire preparedness and development along the 101 corridor fall squarely within the topics candidates addressed at the forum.

Ballots go out ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. With two candidates each in Districts 1, 2 and 3, voters will decide the direction of a council grappling with state housing mandates, a transformative downtown redevelopment and ongoing questions about growth in a city where, as Taylor noted, roughly 42% of the land is protected open space.

Additional forums and candidate events are expected in the weeks leading up to the election; residents can check the Greater Conejo Chamber of Commerce and the city's website for updates.