The portion of Interstate 5 that runs from the southern boundaries of Burbank and Glendale to California Highway 126 in the Santa Clarita Valley is ripe with economic opportunity, according to a new study that will be released Nov. 1 by the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley’s Mulholland Institute. The finding may come as a surprise to San Fernando Valley residents, many of whom have come to associate parts of the area with poverty. “If you start looking at this area, it has the highest unemployment rates, the highest poverty rates,” said Bruce Ackerman, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley. But Ackerman also asserts the area has “some of the best opportunities to change and be a community of change that we could possibly identify.” Industrial possibilities abound along this strip of the corridor near California Highway 126, according to Bob Scott, Mulholland Institute director and Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley founding chair. There are very low vacancy rates along the I-5 corridor with regards to industrial properties, Scott said. Santa Clarita in particular has a booming industrial market. “As soon as something is built it’s leased,” Scott said. The goal now is to spread the wealth along the corridor. “If you look at the I-5 itself, it goes from Los Angeles to Burbank to Santa Clarita Valley and what little available land is left is in the Valley,” Ackerman said. “What’s wrong with this picture? Why aren’t we doing more to develop this area, increase our housing stock, remediate and clean up the dump sites, older industrial sites that could be converted to light manufacturing or tech businesses?” In April, a landfill in the East Valley was closed down, Scott said. If the East Valley can transition from having, what he calls, “a landfill mentality” to having a “recycling mentality,” the area could experience a renaissance of sorts. “As we revitalize the East Valley area, that may free up some opportunities to put more industrial land available for attracting new business, and, at the same time, you have, in areas along the corridor, workforce available to support new and emerging industries.” Ackerman is hopeful that by strategizing as to how to connect the communities in question along I-5, other issues, such as the housing shortage, may also be addressed. “I have been amazed at the fact that if you look at the San Fernando Valley,all five cities out here,and if you look at where we might be able to accommodate future growth,there are very few places where there are open land,” he said. “We have to be smarter about how we use space. All the way from Calabasas, up to Glendale and going along to almost Santa Clarita, there’s that huge opportunity in the Northeast San Fernando Valley,Sunland, Sylmar, Pacoima. They’ve got huge opportunities.” When the report is released, economics professor Daniel Blake of California State University, Northridge, will also discuss the potential for growth along I-5. Blake provided much of the basic data for the study, he said. Blake believes that the growth of the Port of Los Angeles is directly tied to the corridor’s economic potential, as the corridor could become an important passageway for the shipment of goods as a result. “Clearly, some of this area can be redeveloped or more intensively developed and that includes going to Santa Clarita and maybe even beyond with activities that are complementary to logistics or goods movement.” Blake also cites the entertainment and biotech industries as playing a role. “The entertainment industry is a good example because it’s concentrated in Glendale, Burbank and Universal City. There’s a huge cluster for the entertainment industry. There are opportunities to develop that as long as we have growth in that area, and biotech is along there, too.” The City of Santa Clarita has been able to capitalize on the booming entertaining industry, thanks to being readily accessible on the I-5 corridor, according to the city’s Economic Development Manager, Jason Crawford. “It’s a straight shot up from Hollywood or Burbank,” he said. “We’re able to get production going against drive-time traffic. It’s a quick shot and an easy drive. We’ve seen the same thing in the aerospace industry where we’ve got ADI (Aerospace Dynamics International). They have supplies all along Southern California, so it’s very important for them to be along the I-5 corridor. Whether the area reaches its potential is ultimately up to the city governments of Glendale, Burbank and Santa Clarita, as well as Los Angeles and the county, Ackerman believes. “For the Economic Alliance, our big role in this community is to serve as a collaborator,” he explained. The Mulholland Institute study will be released at the Economic Alliance’s Info Summit on Nov. 1 at the Holiday Inn in Burbank.
