Antelope Valley Cities Try to Keep Competition Civil

The proposed relocation of a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant brought to the surface just how competitive and protective the two biggest cities in the Antelope Valley can get when it comes to their businesses. The flare up between Lancaster and Palmdale has since been extinguished and explained away by some as a misunderstanding and others as an example of lingering tension between the cities. The spark though can be explained easily: the owners of the Fresco II restaurant in Lancaster wanted to buy and relocate to an empty building along “restaurant row” at the Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale. To facilitate the move, Palmdale offered to defer some fees. Not so fast, was the response from Lancaster, whose elected officials believed Palmdale was violating a decade-old agreement that the cities would not use public money or incentives to poach each other’s businesses. The anti-piracy agreement was an item before the Palmdale City Council this month but they took no action to break away from its provisions. This despite Mayor Jim Ledford believing the agreement is no longer necessary. And what does the co-owner of Fresco II think of all this? Lenny Graffeo had no comment about all the hub-bub that arose between the cities over his desire to relocate. He did say that he still wanted to move to the vacant On The Border restaurant building in Palmdale. Observers to the tiff are just glad that it’s over and ready to move on. “It was a difference in opinion,” said Mel Layne, the president of the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance. “It could have been worked out at a staff level.” Lancaster city officials were mum on the issue but not so Ledford. A state law passed several years ago backed by State Sen. George Runner, a former Lancaster mayor, prevents cities from stealing away large sales tax revenue generating businesses like big box retailers and auto dealerships, Ledford said. While small businesses of the size of Fresco II are much appreciated they are not in the same category of a Wal-Mart or Best Buy. So there is little reason to offer incentives to lure those small businesses away, Ledford said. “To offer incentives without payback does not make sense,” he added. The anti-piracy came about at a time when there was true concern over the cities taking away businesses. Rather than engage in tit-for-tat competition, the feeling was to think as a region rather than separate cities. Prior to the Antelope Valley Mall, Lancaster had been a retail center with many brand name chains. Palmdale has now overtaken as the commercial hub while Lancaster has developed in another direction. As long as times were good and businesses wanted to come to either city there were no complaints as to how each developed. As the recession deepened and sales tax revenues plummeted it may get the competitiveness flowing at a higher rate to bring in new business. As one business observer put it when that occurs it will be the low hanging fruit they go after and that is what is already existing. Not all that fruit is worth picking if it doesn’t bring in the revenues to make the incentives worth it is the position of Palmdale. And there was never a monetary break offered to Fresco II just a delay in paying fees, Ledford said. Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris however disagrees with Ledford’s contention that the agreement is redundant in the face of the state law. “It goes well beyond state law, both in terms of restricting costly predatory practices and its recognition that economic development resources are finite and should be used for the highest priorities of job creation and regional business attraction,” Parris wrote in a letter to Ledford. With this disagreement settled, the two cities can move on and work together in cooperation as they have in the past. The city managers of both regularly talk with each other; and both cities are involved in an application to extend the life of the Valley’s enterprise zone. While there can be a difference of opinion there still exists a spirit of working together as a region, Layne said. “When I work with the cities they are rah rah for the Antelope Valley,” Layne said.