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Oxford City Council has been accused of acting beyond its authority to push housing into rural areas.
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils said it appeared to be "attempting to exceed the city's remit and force more development across Oxfordshire's rural countryside."
It comes as the city council identified the need for 1,322 new homes each year, as part of the housing need consultation for its Oxford Local Plan 2040.
The city council has chosen to disregard the government's standard method - a formula used to calculate how many new homes a council should plan for - which suggested the need was just 762.
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The government method was outdated, said city councillor Alex Hollingsworth, cabinet member for planning and housing delivery, who labelled it the "so called standard method."
He said it used guesses made in 2014 about what Oxfordshire's population would be now.
The councillor added it would be "dishonest" for the city council to use the projections knowing they were wrong
Housing levels needed to reflect the "acute housing pressures" across Oxford and Oxfordshire, he continued, and should keep pace with the economic growth in the county.
He said: "There are many people in housing need, housing costs whether to buy or rent are at unprecedented levels and the current cost of living crisis is badly affecting many of our community.
"The government has made it clear that Oxfordshire local authorities need to consider and identify the level of housing need."
He added: "Similarly, Oxfordshire's economy is thriving, as a result of decisions made over many decades."
"The city council believes that the provision of housing needs to keep pace with Oxfordshire's growth, because not doing so will make affordability even worse."
The consultation, which runs until March 27, is the first step in the local plan's housing provision. It will identify the number of homes required.
The next step will decide how many homes the city council can accommodate itself, before the final step considers what excess can be taken on by the surrounding district councils.
In a joint statement, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils requested the city council "restricts its aspiration for unjustifiable housing development to its own borders."
It accused the city council of "acting outside its authority" to introduce plans that were "unsustainable and hostile."
Cllr David Rouane, leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, said: "It's like Oxford is running up a bill they have no intention of paying, and leaving others to pick up the tab. It's not very neighbourly."
He said his district council had already accepted plans for a significant number of homes as part of the city council's previous local plan.
This included 3,000 homes planned near Grenoble Road and 1,800 planned at Northfield, both to the south of the city, and 1,100 planned at Bayswater Brook to the east.
Cllr Bethia Thomas, leader of Vale of White Horse District Council, said: "We've had enough of Oxford overestimating their housing number and underestimating their housing capacity so that they can export housing to neighbouring authorities.
"This is unsustainable. It generates unwanted pressure on the rural districts and even more misery for people commuting in and around Oxford."
However, Cllr Thomas's claim that the city council underestimated its housing capacity was disputed by Cllr Hollingsworth, from the city council.
"The city council has allocated many sites for development in the city, some of which are highly controversial," he said.
"Our new Local Plan is proposing that housing can be built on every single employment site in the city, if the owners of those sites want to. Even so the need for new housing will exceed the capacity of the city."
Cllr Hollingsworth dismissed the entire joint statement from the district councils as "disappointing, but not unexpected."
It was false to claim, he said, that there had been no engagement with the district councils, after the joint statement claimed the city council had not responded to concerns that were raised.
Cllr Hollingsworth claimed that when district council officers were asked when they would like to be briefed on the plans, they said it would be preferable during the consultation.
"Only last week our officers approached them again to set that meeting up," he said.
"Our planning officers will continue to engage with colleagues right across the county to ensure that we plan proactively for the right jobs and homes in the right places."
Cllr Hollingsworth also dismissed claims that the city council had asked rural district councils to also use its alternative calculation for housing - rather than the standard method.
"There is no obligation whatsoever for any other council to use this approach," he said.
"But we are clear that to deliberately ignore the evidence from the 2021 census that the standard method is based on figures that are wrong, and to deliberately aim to make housing in Oxfordshire less affordable for ordinary people by refusing to match the economic growth in the county that is already happening, is the wrong approach."