Changing Image

Company towns are a past infamy of the industrial revolution, mostly extinct now. Over the years, California has had a unique form of company town. The City of Los Angeles virtually owned Bishop, the major population center of the Owens Valley. In the early 1930s Los Angeles held title to about 85% of all the property in Bishop, including almost all the residences and even most of the churches. The situation was similar in the town of Big Pine and in Independence, the seat of government of Inyo County, population 18,250.

This was an outgrowth of the city Department of Water and Power’s secret scheme earlier in the century to buy up Owens Valley ranches for their water rights. Ever since 1913, most of Los Angeles’ water has come from that source.

But Los Angeles is gradually turning Owens Valley towns back to the Owens Valleyites. Water and Power held an auction in Bishop recently in which 24 parcels, including some major commercial lots and buildings, were sold to area residents and potential developers for a total of $2.2 million. One North Main Street parcel, on which the minimum bid was set at $130,000, went for $400,000.

When the city bought up all that ranchland years ago, town residents claimed that their entire economy was threatened. They demanded that Los Angeles buy up townland as well. A bond issue t1864394345many cases, parcels brought twice their market value at the time. The Department of Water and Power immediately leased most of the homes and businesses back to the sellers. In effect, this was “an elaborate reparations” process to compensate the valley for Los Angeles’ perfidy, a Los Angeles official said.

Los Angeles’ disposal of the Bishop property has been accelerated in the past seven or eight years, said Duane Georgeson, Water and Power’s assistant general manager. He estimated that his agency now holds less than 5% of the residential property and about 15% of the co1835885938exempt from taxation, Los Angeles does pay property taxes on its Owens Valley holdings.

The land-sale program is popular in the Owens Valley, where officials say that Water and Power has made considerable strides in recent years to be a better neighbor and landlord. “I’m pleased to see the land in the hands of the private sector,” Bishop City Administrator Rick Pucci said the other day. The spirited bidding for commercial property was encouraging to Bishop officials, who are seeking to broaden the area’s weak economic base, which is largely reliant on tourism and recreation, with most of the dollars coming from Los Angeles-area visitors.

At the same time, the Department of Water and Power continues to buy up Owens Valley ranches to protect its water supply. It now owns more than 300,000 acres in Inyo and Mono counties. A Bishop official said that Owens Valley residents are ambivalent about this, but the level of water exports has been limited through a cooperative agreement with Inyo County. And, by putting the towns back into the hands of the people, Los Angeles is helping to overcome its image of villain of the valley and master of the company town.