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Consultant lays out economic development opportunities plan for Santa Fe Springs
Summary
Cosmo Companies consultant Ken Herro presented an economic development opportunities plan stressing the city’s large industrial base, underused retail potential and tools such as EIFDs and transient-occupancy-tax changes to attract hotels and retail; council heard the presentation and staff said the plan is on the agenda for adoption.
Ken Herro, a consultant with Cosmo Companies, told the Santa Fe Springs City Council that the city’s economy has strengths and untapped opportunities that the city can act on. “You have obviously a large industrial base, 50 some odd million square feet,” Herro said, and that daytime population creates demand the city could capture with targeted economic-development tools.
Herro summarized a SWOT analysis and market metrics and pointed to policy levers the city could use, including marketing, public–private partnerships, surplus-land procedures, and infrastructure financing districts. He cited the city’s transient-occupancy-tax rate as an example of unrealized revenue: “The average from other cities across California is about 6%,” he said, “and the city of Santa Fe Springs is pretty low, less than 1%.”
The presentation framed housing and retail as part of economic development and noted the city’s jobs-to-housing ratio and a large employee inflow. Herro recommended pursuing enhanced infrastructure financing districts (EIFDs) in partnership with Metro and Los Angeles County, continuing outreach to hoteliers and retailers and using the plan to guide incentive and redevelopment efforts.
Council members did not press substantive questions during the presentation. City staff noted the plan has been developed over several years and said it is on the agenda for adoption that evening; no formal adoption vote on the plan was recorded in the transcript of the portion containing the presentation.
The consultant said Cosmo Companies will continue to assist with implementation and follow-up work. Next steps mentioned included refined site-specific opportunity analyses, targeted marketing to developers and hotels, and advancing EIFD discussions with county and regional partners.
