Cities Find High Incomes Don’t Keep Businesses From Closing : Revenue: In the wake of loss of Vons, I. Magnin and other high-profile or longtime stores, peninsula officials are taking steps to stimulate commercial activity.

Palos Verdes Peninsula cities have a median income of between $80,000 and $150,000 a year, but local businesses are not immune to closure.

In 1994, three peninsula cities saw high-profile or longtime businesses close their doors. In Rancho Palos Verdes, a 27,700-square-foot Vons supermarket, the largest tenant at Harbor Cove Plaza, closed its doors. In Palos Verdes Estates, it was a 20-year-old general store. And in Rolling Hills Estates, the I. Magnin department store sold off the last of its designer clothes.

“It obviously impacts a small city because we have very little commercial activity,” said Paul D. Bussey, city manager of Rancho Palos Verdes, which has a population of about 43,000. “So each loss affects our bottom line and takes away from our sales tax base.” Rancho Palos Verdes sales tax revenues hit $909,000 last year, but are expected to average only $880,000 through 1998. The Vons closure along with other closures, such as a Builder’s Emporium, get partial blame for the decline, said city Finance Director Brent Mattingly.

“We have lost some big businesses,” Mattingly said. “Big for us.”

In 1994, sales tax made up 11% of the city’s $8.2 million general fund, which covers day- to- day operating expenses.

The city was able to avert the closure of one Unocal service station near the Vons. Over the past year and a half, Unocal has closed three of its five Rancho Palos Verdes service stations, and when this latest station was threatened, the City Council sent a letter of protest to Unocal CEO Roger Beach.

“Obviously, the letter from the City Council didn’t hurt,” said Bob Mattes, a Unocal area manager.

In Palos Verdes Estates, the Palos Verdes General Store closed its doors after 20 years in business. Local business owners told the City Council that the closure symbolized the city’s decline, but city officials said the store did not generate large amounts of sales tax.

In Palos Verdes Estates, sales tax revenues reached a high of $197,000 in 1990. Because of other business failures in the past four years, it was down to $171,000 in 1994. Officials predict that sales tax revenues will hold at that level until 1999.

The City Council, after an end-of-the-year study session with local business owners, agreed to restrict parking on weekends at Malaga Cove Plaza, the city’s largest business center. Business owners complained that sports enthusiasts such as joggers park for hours while exercising, and fail to buy food or goods.

The council will also study whether parking spaces in lots and streets near Malaga Cove Plaza can be allocated for specific businesses, especially restaurants.

And the council agreed to study streamlining the way business signs get approved. If a sign meets certain guidelines, approval would be automatic, eliminating the need for City Council, Planning Commission and Art Jury approval.

Rolling Hills Estates, with the bulk of the peninsula’s businesses, was the only city to predict increased sales taxes this year after experiencing a steady decline since 1991. Finance Director Judy Smith said sales taxes should increase by 2% each year, beginning this year from an estimated $1.3 million in 1994.

She said her optimism was based on remodeling and new tenants at the Peninsula Center.

The city was granted a reprieve when I. Magnin’s Cincinnati-based parent company said it would replace the store, one of two anchors at the Shops at Palos Verdes, with a Bullock’s women’s store.