Business View Magazine | September 2019

221 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019 ONTAR IO, CAL I FORNI A Andrews: “About a decade ago, we adopted what we call ‘The Ontario Plan.’ There have been some amendments in the ensuing years, but it’s a combination of a land-use general plan and a business operations plan for the city; melding together the traditional land-use goals with an operations plan that brings in elements of finance and economic development that our agency was responsible for. That document is about ten years old now and it has worked well for the city. When investors or new homeowners come in, and want to know what the city’s vision is, that’s the document we refer to. “Our council is pretty creative and aggressive when it comes to trying to attract and retain business in the city. One of the tools we’ve used on a very selective, but strategic, basis is location and retention agreements. In a nutshell, we use either the anticipated revenue from a new development coming in, or in the case of an existing business that is generating revenue to the city, we will use a revenue participation structure to retain and, hopefully, facilitate the expansion of a business in the city. “These are instances in many cases where the businesses are considering facilities out of the state. Our city council has been very strategic in their direction to us, as staff, to work very closely with businesses to ensure we are using every means necessary to either attract or retain them. Because, for Ontario, what many of those revenues work their way into on the expense side are what we use for public safety, parks, libraries, and the essential services of a growing population.” BVM: What draws people to Ontario? Gates: “We are the location of the Ontario Mills Outlet Mall that has 24 million visitors a year. It’s one of the top tourist and shopping destinations in California and a great source of revenue for the city. We also have the recently renamed Toyota Arena (formerly Citizens Bank Arena) – a great, multi-purpose venue for concerts and big sporting events. We worked really hard with Toyota to secure that 10-year deal for naming rights. They have a huge distribution center here in the city, Cole Huber LLP provides the full spectrum of municipal legal services to cities, counties and special districts throughout California. Whether dealing with traditional legal issues or very specialized questions of law, the legal team at Cole Huber LLC can provide your agency with the quality legal services it deserves. ADVANCING YOUR AGENDA Ontario: 909.230.4209 colehuber.com