Local city information for Thousand Oaks, CA

For the neighborhood of Berkeley, California, see Thousand Oaks, Berkeley, California.

Thousand Oaks, commonly referred to as "T.O." by residents, is a city in southeastern Ventura County, California, in the United States. It was named after the many oak trees that grace the area, and the city seal is adorned with an oak.

The city forms the most populated part of a regional area called the Conejo Valley, which includes Thousand Oaks proper, Newbury Park, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Agoura, Oak Park, and Ventu Park. The Los Angeles County/Ventura County line crosses at the western city limits of Westlake Village, with Westlake Village being partly in Los Angeles County. Also included as part of The City of Thousand Oaks is Newbury Park to the West and part of Westlake Village to the East.

The City of Thousand Oaks along with Newbury Park were part of a master planned city, created by the Janss Corporation in the mid-1950s. It included about 1,000 custom home lots, 2,000 single-family residences, a regional shopping center, industrial park and several neighborhood shopping centers. Today, real estate in the area is very expensive, with median home prices around $722,500. It is located in the Northwestern area of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The city was recently named one of Money Magazine's Best Places to Live.

The area was once occupied by the Chumash people, and 2000-year old cave drawings may still be seen at the Chumash Interpretive Center, in the Lang Ranch section of the city.

The area's recorded history dates to 1542 when Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo landed at Point Mugu and claimed the land for his country, Spain. It eventually became part of the 48,671-acre (197 km²) Rancho El Conejo land grant by the Spanish government, thus becoming the basis of the name Conejo Valley (conejo means "rabbit" in Spanish, and there are many in the area). It served as grazing land for vaqueros for the next fifty years.

In the late 19th century it was on the stagecoach route between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The Stagecoach Inn was built in 1876, and is now a California Historical Landmark and a popular museum.

The Janss Family, developers of Southern California subdivisions, purchased 10,000 acres (40 km²) in the early 1900s. They eventually created plans for a "total community" and the name remains prominently featured in the city.

Jungleland USA was one of Southern California's first theme parks. Wild animal shows entertained thousands in the 1940s and 1950s. Many TV and movie productions used the park's trained animals and were filmed there, including Birth of a Nation, Tarzan, and The Adventures of Robin Hood. The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center today stands on the site of the park.

The City of Thousand Oaks was incorporated on October 7, 1964. It is known for being entirely a planned community, as the city is one of few that have actually stayed with the master plan. As a result, the city has fewer of the problems of other cities of similar size, such as traffic congestion and pollution, although increased development in Moorpark and Simi Valley in the late 1990s and early 2000s caused the 23 freeway to become heavily congested during both morning and afternoon rush hours. A major widening project began in 2008 to alleviate most of this congestion. Because of its desirable environment and location, property values have appreciated more than 250% in less than ten years, primarily during the mid-90s to early 2000s.

Newbury Park is an area in the most western part of the city. This area is the Thousand Oaks 91320 zip code. This area was once controlled by Ventura County as an unincorporated area, but was later annexed by the City of Thousand Oaks through votes by Newbury Park communities. The only community that chose to remain a county area, Casa Conejo, was Newbury Park's first planned community built from 1960 to about 1965.

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