FULLERTON : City Ponders Ways to Keep Car Dealers

Faced with losing more of its car dealerships to auto malls in neighboring cities, Fullerton officials might offer incentives to keep dealers in town.

City officials are drafting a plan that would create redevelopment areas around some of its existing auto dealerships, City Manager William C. Winter said. The plan will be ready for City Council consideration in about two months.

If a redevelopment area were set up, the city would be able to help the dealerships expand by buying land around the dealerships and offering it to them at a discounted price.

Currently, Winter said, car dealerships in Fullerton have no open land available on which to expand. If a dealership is to grow, the only affordable option is to leave Fullerton, he said.

And neighboring Buena Park has a welcome mat out for them--and for the sales tax dollars that they would produce.

In recent months, Buena Park’s redevelopment officials have offered several Fullerton auto dealerships discounted land prices in an effort to persuade them to move to the city’s growing “auto row” off the Santa Ana Freeway and Manchester Boulevard.

One dealership took Buena Park up on the offer and a second is expected to follow, Winter said.

Fullerton’s car dealerships generate about $1.7 million a year in sales taxes, said Ed Paul, the city’s revenue manager.

That’s about 15% of the total sales tax that Fullerton receives. Only department stores bring in more sales tax revenue, he said.

“The reason why it’s a concern when you lose a car dealership is you can’t replace a car dealership as easily as a clothing store, a food market or a hardware store, where another one can come in quite easily and put another name on the door,” Paul said.