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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Lancaster Gets Award as Business Friendly City

Lancaster is the Most Business Friendly City in Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. At its 12th annual Eddy Awards, held Nov. 6, LAEDC bestowed the honor upon the North Los Angeles County town of 143,000. Carrie Rogers, LAEDC vice president of business assistance and development, explained why she believes Lancaster received the award. “It think it’s because the City of Lancaster has not only listened to what the business community has to say about their needs and their issues, they’ve implemented those requests from the business community.” Lancaster has created 5,000 new jobs and has attracted and retained businesses by fast tracking permits and other services offered through its Enterprise Zone and Recycling Market Development Zone. Furthermore, large distribution centers for national companies such as Rite Aid, Michaels and Sygma, as well as smaller local companies and national retail and restaurant chains, have been established in Lancaster. Bill Allen, LAEDC president and CEO, believes that the mayor and city council of Lancaster have played a crucial role in the city’s economic development. “The City of Lancaster best represents what can be achieved when our city governments work side by side with the business community to create business-friendly environments where quality jobs can grow,” he remarked in a statement. Lancaster Mayor Henry Hearns was surprised but pleased that his city received the honor from LAEDC. “We’re absolutely blown away to be selected among all the other cities,” he said. Lancaster was one of six finalists for the award. Valley cities Burbank, Palmdale and Santa Clarita were finalists for the honor, as well as out-of-area cities Cerritos and Long Beach. Hearns believes that Lancaster edged the competition out because it has a mayor’s roundtable in which companies meet with him and other city officials regularly to discuss and resolve issues. “The mayor’s business roundtable, which I instituted this year, that’s going good,” he said. “We have made some changes.” In addition to the roundtable, Lancaster has streamlined services to better aid businesses. Hearns said that, from here, he intends to attract more companies to Lancaster by telling them that the city has been recognized by LAEDC for being business-friendly. “We would like them to come and check us out,” he said. Hearns added that he wants to sit down with city departments and strategize as to how Lancaster can explore additional methods of economic development. The LAEDC also has goals for the future, specifically planning how it can best motivate other cities to develop business-friendly strategies. “We are really proud of all of the cities that took the time to apply and to really showcase the efforts that they’ve taken to become more business friendly,” Rogers said. “Our goal overall is for the 88 cities within Los Angeles County to raise that bar with a greater number of jobs and helping our businesses thrive in Los Angeles County. Our goal for next year is to teach other cities how to be more business friendly and to acknowledge and reward more cities for those efforts.”

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