Simi Valley Plans to Hire Consultant on Luring Industry

In an effort to shake its status as a bedroom community, Simi Valley is hiring a consultant to develop a strategy for attracting industry to provide local jobs for residents.

City officials are hoping an aggressive campaign to lure “clean” industry--preferably Fortune 500 firms--will bolster the city’s economy and keep close to home many Simi Valley residents now obliged to work out of town.

“We have approximately 90,000 people in the community right now and we still have a very large percentage of those who drive out of the community for jobs,” Councilwoman Vicky Howard said. “Ultimately, what we would like to have is a situation in which a majority of the people live and work in the community.”

The 1980 census found that the average working resident of the city of 93,000 on Ventura County’s eastern edge drives 31.6 minutes to work.

Council members said the city is losing sales tax revenue because residents who work elsewhere spend much of their money elsewhere. And, because of long daily commutes, many Simi Valley residents are not spending enough time with their families, Howard said.

“To everybody there is a trade-off, but most people feel, all things being equal, they would like to have a job closer to home,” said Councilman Greg Stratton, who estimated that 70% of employed Simi Valley residents work in Los Angeles County.

City officials want to put an end to that. Sitting as the board of directors of the Simi Valley Community Development Agency, the City Council on Monday authorized the city manager to spend up to $60,000 to hire a consultant to devise a long-term marketing program to sell corporations on the benefits of locating in Simi Valley.

Although council members are trying to attract industry, the city also is the scene of campaigns to limit certain types of growth.

A slow-growth group has placed two measures on the November ballot. One, designed to protect hillsides, would prohibit grading of slopes of 10% or more for industrial or commercial development. The other would place yearly controls on the rate and distribution of housing construction.

Council Drafts Measures

Responding to those initiatives, the council placed two growth-limiting measures of its own on the ballot, both less restrictive than those proposed by the citizens groups.

The decision to step up efforts in the highly competitive field of municipal self-promotion follows a three-month study by a Thousand Oaks firm of Simi Valley’s current marketing strategy, which involves the distribution of brochures and videotapes. The firm, Elliot/Toal & Associates, concluded that the marketing program is too “loosely structured and coordinated” to effectively compete with other cities.

Based on experience from other cities, the firm said, Simi Valley could see a return on its $60,000 investment within two to five years after developing a long-term marketing program.

It’s not that Simi Valley is hurting for new business. At the beginning of the year, the city had about 1.2 million square feet available for industrial and high-tech firms, Deputy City Manager Robert Hunt said. Since that time, however, 350,000 square feet have been leased and firms are negotiating to rent another 150,000 square feet, he said.

Large Firms Identified

Among the businesses in the city are regional headquarters of Farmers Insurance Group and First Interstate Bancard Co.

“We’re happy with the effort we’ve done, but I don’t think we can rest on our laurels,” Hunt said.

Consultant Would Be Hired

A consultant would be asked to advise the city on what industries it is likely to attract, officials said. Companies that have already located in Simi Valley have cited the abundance of relatively inexpensive land as a reason, they said.

But Hunt said the city will also try to sell “quality of life.”

“We have been able to have a modern, urbanized area while retaining that rural atmosphere,” he said. “Why, across from City Hall, they are still cultivating corn and selling it.”