WOODLAND HILLS : Group Hopes to Lure Businesses to Valley

In an attempt to head off three years of devastating job losses in the San Fernando Valley, the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce has formed a committee of local business and political representatives to lure companies to the area.

Dubbed the Committee to Bring and Retain Business to the Valley, the group includes politicians, business people and representatives from The Times and other newspapers.

“We’ve got businesses moving out, and someone else is going to move in,” said committee founder David Morris, who runs a print shop in Woodland Hills. “There are plenty of places to live, there are plenty of places to locate a business. We’re trying to keep the whole thing positive.”

Morris said his decision to start the committee was prompted largely by news that occupancy at Warner Center--one of the Valley’s premiere office complexes--had dipped as low as 80%.

But he said the task of bringing new businesses to the Valley was given an extra sense of urgency by Transamerica Insurance Group’s announcement this summer that it plans to move from Woodland Hills to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. That move would bring the number of announced job losses in the Valley to more than 10,000 during the past three years.

The first full meeting of the committee will be Friday, and Morris said he hopes the group will meet at least once a month.