Council Backs Effort to Study Quake Rates

Hoping to correct what many residents see as an inequity, the City Council has voted to support efforts by state and county officials to review earthquake insurance rates in the 91360 ZIP Code area.

The California Earthquake Authority, which oversees the state’s effort to provide earthquake insurance to all California residents who want it, has developed a system of rates largely based on location, using ZIP Codes to differentiate between areas.

That classification has been met with criticism throughout California, including in Thousand Oaks, where residents in the 91360 area complain that they will have to pay 2 1/2 times the rate of their neighbors. Rates, which vary according to the age of a house, will run from $4.50 to $5.70 per $1,000 of coverage in the 91360 ZIP Code, the same as parts of Santa Paula, Camarillo, Ventura and Somis.

“ZIP Codes are completely arbitrary,” said City Manager Grant Brimhall. “They bear no relationship to seismic safety. I don’t know that they bear a relationship to anything, other than delivering the mail.”

Supervisor Frank Schillo has been working with state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) to schedule a public hearing with California Earthquake Authority representatives in Ventura County.

The purpose of the hearing would be to review the rates for the ZIP Code, something the California Earthquake Authority has already begun, according to a letter from Schillo to the council.

The City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to back the ongoing efforts of Schillo, Takasugi and Wright. It also voted unanimously to send a letter directly to state legislators requesting that the rates be reduced.