February 2017 | Business View Magazine

148 149 concept.” Allen says that the General Plan’s draft doc- uments will be available before the end of February and that the next step for the City is to complete its state-mandated environmental study. He thinks that the Plan’s final adoption will take place sometime this summer. Meanwhile, Cudahy`s Community Develop- ment Department has already secured over $10 million in competitive grant funds over the last four years for capital improvements like parks, sidewalks, roads, and educational outreach over the next five years. Evidence of this is seen in the City’s recently completed Clara Expansion Park project (a quarter-acre park expansion including a walking path, five exercise stations, and picnic areas - a $1.8 million project all funded by the State); and the Lugo Park Reno- vation project (a complete overhaul of natural turf to a state-of-the-art, synthetic soccer field - a $1.6 million project made up of County, Fed- eral, and local funds). Michael Cudahy’s original plan to make his community work for the benefit of its residents still resonates in the ethos of the city that bears his name –only, today, that plan is being updat- ed in its implementation to meet the desires of its current population. Cudahy, California may be a city small in size, but its plans for the future are big. Preferred vendor n Transtech Engineers www.transtech.org focal point for the city. “Today, if you want to shop or eat in the southeast area where Cudahy is situated, many residents choose to go outside the city,” he states. “A lot of the drive behind this update is creating opportunities within the city limits for dining and entertainment, receiving public services, and participating in civic opportunities and programs. The biggest change in our General Plan in terms of land use is rezoning that commercial corridor to create more of an environment that facilitates invest- ments into that area and invites residents to do business there. That definitely has been a core focus.” Helping to achieve that outcome is the City’s recent efforts in the creation of a new taxing entity, established with the help of its local and state legislators, which will allow it to re- invest taxing dollars into the local neighbor- hood. “That is going to be a very important tool, moving forward, in the coming years to identify and create a new source of revenue that can be focused and reinvested on certain areas,”Allen reports. “In ten or so years, we will have that downtown corridor implemented in Cudahy. And, hopefully, we’ll be identifying strategies that can be implemented over the next 15 or 20 years that will continue to expand on that Cudahy, California