ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : For Business, More Than Sunshine

One of the loudest laments heard around Orange County as the recession deepened in recent years was that there was too much red tape for business. With all the talk about companies contemplating a move to other states, the Board of Supervisors has decided to do something about the tangle of bureaucracy.

The board last week agreed to expand significantly its existing Development Processing Center in Santa Ana so that, beginning Dec. 13, the facility will include significant state agencies and some additional county ones under one roof. The aim is to help business owners make their way much more easily through the complicated business permit process. In doing so, the county has joined Los Angeles, which set up a similar one-stop center earlier in the year.

The center will provide access to representatives from such agencies as the South Coast Air Quality Management District, California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the state Trade and Commerce Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency’s toxic substances board. Other state and county agencies will be represented at, or work through, the center.

It used to be that Orange County didn’t have to do much more for business than provide the sunshine. The new center is a signal of the county’s fresh willingness to cut the Gordian knot of bureaucracy.