Mini-Malls Equal Maxi Tax Dollars

One considerable boost that mini-malls have given the city and county of Los Angeles has been, and still is, the taxes generated by the businesses these malls contain (“A Brief History of the Mini-Mall,” by Mary Melton, Nov. 16).

As the article indicates, before the mini-malls arrived, the properties they were built on had been occupied by a one-user type of business, such as a filling station, or by an empty lot. Once La Mancha, Sassony and some of the other mini-mall developers filled their vacancies, the larger tenant base converted a single-user tax base to a multi-user base and provided considerably more revenue to the city, county and state in the form of sales taxes, city business licenses and county health permits as well as payroll taxes for far more employees than service stations ever employed. In addition, the property tax base for assessment purposes was increased to a value far greater than that of the prior occupant, resulting in higher property tax assessments, payments and collections.

So, in retrospect, even though there has been much cussing and discussing the value of mini-malls over the last 25 years, the developers should be honored by the tax-supported agencies of all the governments for the increased revenues the malls have provided.

Milt Cohen

Chatsworth

Melton says that the first modern-day mini-mall opened in Panorama City in 1973. However, our local mini-mall, on Fullerton Road in Rowland Heights, was already open in April of 1969, when we moved into this area

Troy X. Kelley

Rowland Heights