Today’s Topic : When the needs of small business collide with environmental regulation, does one side have to lose?

The American dream means just one thing to many people: owning a business. The dream is not an impossible one.

In Southern California alone, there were more than 330,000 businesses with fewer than 50 employees in 1991, the latest year figures are available, according to the Economic Development Corporation of Los Angeles.

Of course, ask entrepreneurs to describe what it’s like to run those businesses and you’re likely to get an earful about rules, regulations and enforcement agencies.

In today’s Working People, restaurant/gas station owner Noel Anenberg details the pitfalls of small business--crime, poverty, gangs--and the one thing that truly drives up his blood pressure: government inspectors.

Anenberg is not the only small business owner to complain about California’s myriad air quality, health and safety regulations.

Some businesses do move out of Southern California--but just 44 in 1993, down from 140 in 1992, according to the EDC. No matter what the numbers, finger-pointing still goes on, and most are pointed at the difficulty of meeting regulatory requirements, particularly environmental laws. It is these complaints that L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan and other local officials say they are trying to address by helping small businesses navigate bureaucracy.

Some people believe the regulations are not destroying business. Rather, new businesses that help clean the environment are thriving.

“There are certain businesses that used to be very attractive for the individual, such as gas stations or auto body painting shops,” says Jon Goodman, director of the entrepreneur program at USC. “Now where you’re seeing a lot of small businesses growing is in waste management and asbestos removal.”

The bottom line, says Goodman, is the quality of life: “A lot of the problem in California, and Los Angeles in particular, is a function of people choosing to live in an environmentally fragile ecology. My personal philosophy is that no one has the right to pollute the environment just to put food on the table.”

In fact, many business owners support anti-pollution regulations but criticize redundant bureaucracy. “I live here, I’ve got my children here, my grandchildren. I want the air to be clean,” says Bob Varela Sr., president of Tape and Label in Santa Fe Springs and treasurer of the Latin Business Assn. “What’s killing businesses is the over-regulation” adds Varela. “There are too many agencies duplicating everything--the state board of health, the county board of health, the fire department. The record-keeping alone is impossible.”

State and local officials say government is responding with “one-stop shops” where owners can apply for all needed permits in one place. “We do regulate more small businesses than ever before,” says Claudia Keith, spokesperson for the regional Air Quality Management District. “But we’ve created a small-business assistance office to work one-on-one with them.”