Countywide : County Considering Business License Fees

The County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed its staff to study the possibility of establishing business license fees in unincorporated areas of the county.

Several supervisors, however, warned that such fees could incur the wrath of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, whose members would likely bear the brunt of any licensing requirements. Even though many cities in Orange County already require business licenses, the county has never demanded them.

Board Chairman Don R. Roth, who is seeking reelection in June, agreed to let the study go forward but strenuously objected to what he called a “business tax.”

“I think, in my opinion, that is a wrong idea,” he said.

The county’s Planning Commission has recommended the study, arguing that business licenses in the unincorporated areas would give the Environmental Management Agency the ability to keep better tabs on development. In some areas, officials said, the commission may approve a particular store, only to have it later close and be replaced by one with a different focus.

For example, a dry cleaners may close and be replaced by a restaurant. The restaurant would have a greater impact on parking, but the county does not now have the ability to monitor and prevent such turnovers.

“All of a sudden you have more traffic,” said John B. Buzas, the county’s manager of current planning. “We have to have a better way of monitoring.”

Improved monitoring would also give the county the ability to better track hazardous materials, officials said. Some materials are inappropriate for areas such as retail malls, but their presence is hard to monitor when buildings change hands.

The study, which is scheduled for completion within six months, will review business license programs in Orange County’s cities, said Tom Mathews, the county’s director of planning. Even if a business license program is adopted--and Mathews stressed that that is by no means a certainty--it would not be intended as a way of generating revenue. It would go only toward paying monitoring costs, he said.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who pulled the item off the supervisors’ consent agenda so they could discuss it before voting on it, sympathized with the need for better monitoring but also echoed many of Roth’s concerns. Vasquez asked that local chambers of commerce be consulted in the course of studying the proposal.

Despite the supervisors’ concern, however, reaction from chamber officials was tempered. Lucien D. Truhill, the county chamber’s president and chief executive officer, said his organization would gladly cooperate in any study investigating the fees.

“I think we’d be interested in appointing some sort of committee,” Truhill said, adding that while business licenses are never liked by companies, they rarely amount to a major burden.

In other action Tuesday, the board approved an increase in the amount of money it sets aside to distribute food stamps, a move required by the growing number of county residents seeking federal assistance.

Although food stamps are paid for by the federal government, the county assumes 25% of the cost of administering the program locally. Tuesday’s vote increases the distribution budget for the stamps by $23,000 for the remaining three months of the current fiscal year.