In fiscal year 2025/26, Oxnard's Community Facilities District No. 9 levied a total of $149.58 in special taxes. That covers all 186 taxable parcels together. The same district's adopted rate formula allows a single finished home to be taxed more than $1,500 a year for services alone. Add the facilities and environmental taxes and a home in the larger size bands goes past $7,000.
CFD 9 is officially named "Northshore at Mandalay Bay." It covers the land at Harbor Boulevard and Fifth Street where Trumark Homes is building Breakwater at Northshore, which the builder describes as steps from Mandalay State Beach. Trumark lists the community as "Coming Spring 2027," anticipated from the low $2 millions, with 3 to 5 bedrooms and up to 3,948 square feet. If you're weighing one of those homes against an Oxnard Shores resale at a similar price, the list price matters less than the tax line. Today it barely registers. It is built to grow once a house stands on the lot.
What the Lots Paid, and What They Could Have
Right now the district taxes land, not homes. For FY 2026/27, the Oxnard City Council adopted Resolution No. 16,063 on June 16, 2026, on a 6 to 1 vote. Its billing report lists each of 186 accounts by parcel number, with its maximum allowed services tax next to the amount actually levied.
| Fiscal year | Accounts billed | Total maximum allowed | Total levied |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 186 | Rates charged per acre on undeveloped land | $149.58 |
| 2026/27 | 186 | $927,169.89 | $41,098.46 |
That works out to the city levying about 4.4% of what it was allowed to. Typical homesite-size parcels, such as those in the 196-0-091 and 196-0-092 blocks, carry FY 2026/27 bills of $108.94 to $263.86 against maximums of $2,457.66 to $5,952.50. A few larger parcels carry much more, led by APN 196-0-100-015 at $10,249.76 levied against a $231,223.15 maximum. The jump from $149.58 to $41,098.46 tracks a change in the land. It is now cut into individual lots with their own parcel numbers. A finished house is the next change, and the rate formula treats it very differently.
The Switch Is a Label Called Developed Property
The district's Rate and Method of Apportionment, the formula behind every bill, sets separate maximums for "Developed Property." That label goes on a parcel once it holds a home. Three taxes can apply to each single-family home. The table below uses the formula's FY 2022/23 starting figures for the two size bands that bracket Breakwater's 2,614 to 3,948 square foot range, which Trumark announced in April 2026.
| Per-home maximum, FY 2022/23 base | 2,550 to 2,699 sq ft | 3,800 to 3,949 sq ft | How it rises each July 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facilities | $2,919.28 | $4,225.59 | 2% a year |
| Services | $1,387 | $1,387 | CPI, minimum 2%, maximum 5% |
| Environmental | $1,622 | $1,622 | CPI, minimum 2%, maximum 5% |
| Total | $5,928.28 | $7,234.59 |
Those increases started July 1, 2023, so four have already applied. At the 2% floor alone, the two totals come to roughly $6,400 and $7,800 for FY 2026/27. The services maximum for a developed home had already reached $1,541.14 in FY 2025/26, after a 3.005% increase that year.
These are ceilings, and the city can levy less, as it does today. The Facilities tax is there to repay bonds for sewer, water, street, storm drain and park infrastructure. The city's November 2025 report says no bonds have been issued and that amendments to the rate formula are in progress. That leaves the per-home figures above as the adopted schedule, open to revision before the first homeowner gets a bill.
One Share Pays to Keep Watching the Ground
The Environmental tax goes back to the site's history. The Ventura County Star reported that the land was a former oil-waste farm, cleaned up in 2007 and 2008 under the state Department of Toxic Substances Control. The paper also reported that the City Council first approved the development in 1999. DTSC approved the North Shore Response Plan on December 17, 2018. The Response Plan the city posts lists the ongoing work for the residential site:
- Soil-vapor extraction
- Groundwater monitoring
- Vapor-intrusion mitigation built into the residential project
- Inspection, maintenance and monitoring of capped soil-consolidation areas
CFD 9 is authorized to fund that operation, maintenance and monitoring under the Response Plan and an Operations and Maintenance Plan that DTSC approved on March 7, 2019. The city's July 2021 tax model budgeted $482,981 a year for environmental operations, maintenance and monitoring, plus $25,000 for administration.
The services side reads like a local map. The 2021 model's services budget included $86,000 for Edison Canal and Channel Islands Harbor maintenance and $88,180 for milk vetch maintenance. It also covered landscaping and streetlights at Harbor and Fifth and a sewer lift station. Those are ongoing jobs with no payoff date, so these two taxes are tied to upkeep rather than to bond repayment. The city's project list also includes a public bike and walking path. Trumark's announcement puts that path along the Edison Canal, with more than 15 acres of protected open space.
Doubled Prices Made the Same Tax Look Smaller
The city's 2021 model expected far lower prices. It assumed base prices from $860,000 to $1,170,000, a weighted average of $992,260 across 292 homes. At those prices, the base tax plus all three special taxes and a $63 fixed charge came to about 1.91% of the price each year.
Special taxes are fixed dollar amounts, so they don't rise with the price of the home. A 2,600 square foot home priced at $2,000,000 shows how that plays out. The model's base rate of 1.24407% comes to about $24,881. Add roughly $6,400 in special-tax maximums and the $63 charge, and the total is about $31,360, or around 1.57% of the price. Doubling the price shrank the tax as a percentage. It did nothing to the dollars, which keep rising at least 2% every July 1.
For context, C.A.R. reported a Ventura County median price of $930,000 for existing single-family homes in September 2026, up 3.3% from a year earlier. The county had 3.5 months of unsold inventory that month, and the median home sold in 38.5 days. Breakwater's anticipated starting price is more than twice that median. At that level, buyers tend to compare it with beach-adjacent resales like Oxnard Shores, not with the county as a whole. The resale isn't on CFD 9's roll, so that comparison only holds up with each home's full tax bill side by side.
Putting Both Bills Side by Side
Reading the two bills together is the fair test. Here's how to get the documents:
- Look up any existing home's actual secured tax bill on Ventura County's WebTax Inquiry System by address or parcel number. The county explains that the Auditor-Controller applies "the general tax levy; voter approved special taxes, and any city or district direct assessments" to each bill.
- Read the newest CFD 9 annual report for the current rate tables and any status updates.
- Check the FY 2026/27 levy resolution, which lists every account's maximum and levied amount by parcel number.
- Ask for the special tax notice. Under California Civil Code Section 1102.6b, the seller of property the section covers "shall make a good faith effort to obtain a disclosure notice concerning the special tax" from the local agency "and shall deliver that notice or those notices to the prospective buyer, as long as the notices are made available by the local agency."
This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm how any special tax affects your own purchase with a tax professional, attorney or lender.
Quick Answers
Is Breakwater at Northshore selling homes yet?
Trumark's page shows "Coming Spring 2027," with sales-office hours listed as "Coming Soon" and an interest list open. The city's July 2026 project list shows the overall Northshore project under construction, with 183 single-family homes and 109 detached condominiums.
Where do Tide and Drift fit in?
They're Trumark's two named neighborhoods inside Breakwater, on the 183 homesites it bought in April 2026. Both sit inside CFD 9.
Can one neighbor's unpaid tax raise mine?
The rate formula caps that. A parcel with an occupancy permit for private residential use can't be taxed more than 10% above what it would have owed if no other owner in CFD 9 had fallen behind. The district reported no delinquencies for FY 2024/25.
If you're deciding between a Breakwater home and an Oxnard Shores resale, I'll run both through the same model for you, with the base tax, the CFD 9 maximums and their escalators year by year, so you're comparing true carrying costs instead of list prices. Reach out to Homes by Billy and we'll go through the numbers together. Call Me 🤙🏻
