| Riverside County, CA | November 2, 2010 Election |
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Economic Development/RedevelopmentBy Bob BottsCandidate for Council Member; City of Banning |
This information is provided by the candidate | |
City economic development activities can and should be the "pump primer" or seed money to stimulate revitalization and urban renewal and the expansion of business activity in a community including industrial development and retail and restaurant expansion.The City economic develop activities such as the Facade Program should serve as seed money to begin to stimulate and encourage private sector economic activities and investment in a particular area, activity, project, or industry. By stimulating private property owners to remodel and revialize their buildings makes a much more attractive area to the private sector to invest in adjacent properties as well as encouraging new businesses to relocate to the particular area. The current severe economic downturn has slowed the expansion of businesses relocating however as the downtown continues to expand with activity, including the new $60,000,000 million dollar Court House, businesses and investors will drawn to the area. That has already begun with a prominent Developer working on the downtown Paseo San Gorgonio Village on the site of the old San Gorgonio Inn. This project will include retail, restaurants and first class office space to support the new Mid County Justice Center. Another example of economic/redevelopment activity is to work with businesses desiring to relocate to the City. A case in point is a large company selling products which produce very significant sales tax revenue and have outgrown their current location in another city. The company came to Banning is looking for much larger acreage and buildings. The City helped facilitate a transaaction between the new buyer and the seller of the empty All Star Dodge property on Ramsey. An appraisal had been completed by the buyer and seller setting a market rate price which was used by the City to buy the property and are now in negotiations with the new buyer to bring the business to Banning. The appraisal is important for as the Redevelopment Agency purchases and utilizes redevelopment money (taxpayer's dollars) they need to insure that they are not overpaying a market rate for the particular property or transaction. This is an example of where Redevelopment can help significantly with fiscal policy of the City. During tight economic times, and even during "normal" times, there is always pressure to produce a balanced budget. A business or City can only reduce expenses so much and continue to operate so each entity has to look for ways to increase income or revenue. Such was the case in working with the new business interested in relocating from out of town. A critical component of this economic concept is that the products sold would primarily be purchased by customers from outside the City thus producing a new large stream of sales tax revenue to the city but now at the expense of local taxpayers. A City's economic vitality is and must be driven by the private sector but a city must be receptive to working with business and industry, as they explore the opportunity to relocate to the City. This means being customer friendly and a staff to help them nagivate through any regulatory issues in order for the business to open. A good example of this was the City and staff cooperatively working with Lawrence Equipment, a manufacturer of restaurant kitchen equipment who recently expanded to Banning. Lawrence bought the large acreage and buildings of the old Pacific Window Company which were forced out of business due to the economic downturn. Lawrence is currently hiring forty employees in Banning and is relocating a large portion of their industrial activity to Banning. Future expansion and more new employment positions is a very real possibility. Friendly cooperation by the City, and in this case no financial investment, helped bring this new company to town. |
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ca/rv Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 3, 2010 15:04
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