Hemet Trying to Put On New Face

Mention Hemet and most people think of a sleepy retirement community surrounded by dairy farms.

It’s a misconception that has been gnawing at officials struggling to attract new business to the Riverside County community, 80 miles east of Los Angeles.

By most standards, Hemet is robust. Starter homes cost 40% less than in Los Angeles. The plentiful work force is fed by 10 Inland Empire universities, colleges and training schools. A 49,000-square-foot public library is under construction. A local reservoir -- the largest in Southern California -- offers an array of recreational activities.

Then there is the median age: 41, and falling fast. In fact, the median age has been plummeting since 1980, when it was 64.2. City officials attribute the drop to the construction and sale of entry-level homes to young families. Since 1990, Hemet’s population has mushroomed from 36,000 to 63,000.

With more than 100,000 lots recently identified as available for construction, Peter Odencrans, a spokesman for the Eastern Municipal Water District, likes to say, “The longer you live in Hemet, the younger you become.”

Even Mayor Lori Van Arsdale falls prey to those who think Hemet is an old folks’ town.

“I keep running into people who say, ‘My, you’re awfully young to be from Hemet,’ ” said Van Arsdale, who is pushing 46. “It hasn’t been an easy task convincing people we’ve had some dramatic demographic changes.

“Over the past decade, our population has doubled, and developers are still bombarding us with building permit requests.”

Senior citizens and mobile home parks are not necessarily out of place in Hemet, which has always aggressively protected the rights of its oldest residents.

But this year, the city is spending $30,000 on an advertising campaign to spruce up its image, and create high-tech and light-industry jobs close to home.

As it stands, more than half of the city’s workers commute to jobs outside the area, where they also tend to shop, pumping tax revenues into other communities.

The ad campaign, designed by Cutting Edge Marketing of Temecula, targets businesses in San Diego and Orange counties.

“Because of the perception that there’s nothing to do here, and that everybody is old, undereducated and living in mobile homes, it’s been hard to attract anything other than services geared toward hospitals and seniors,” said Pat Melvin, executive director of the Valley Economic Development Corp., a multi-jurisdictional nonprofit group.

“But there’s even a Chuck E. Cheese coming into town. That should tell you something about who we are today.”

More big changes are on the way. Nearby Diamond Valley Lake is expected to draw an estimated 1 million to 2 million visitors per year to the area.

The increasingly youthful face of Hemet’s population, coupled with the spread of subdivisions, makes some longtime residents nervous.

But Judy Heine, 56, a Hemet resident for 26 years, views the changes as invigorating.

Staring out of the tinted window of her downtown beauty shop, Heine said, “There’s something new coming in every day, and I like that.

“I still have a lot of older clients, and love them dearly. But I’ve been getting more and more younger, ambitious ones lately.

“I only wish there were more things for them do in town at night and on the weekends.”