Calabasas : City’s Economic Base Targeted in Survey

Saying they want to help attract and retain business, Calabasas officials have hired a research firm to conduct a census of businesses in the city. The move is designed partly to help officials gain a clearer understanding of the city’s economic base.

Calabasas-based Davis Market Research Services Inc. will conduct telephone surveys of the businesses, asking them to list the advantages and disadvantages of doing business here, and to suggest other types of enterprises that could help the city become more economically viable, officials said.

The information will help the city, which incorporated in 1991, determine whether it needs to diversify its economic base, said Barbara Pilegard, a community development specialist for the city.

“If a city relies very heavily on one industry or another, then you are very vulnerable,” she said.

The city, she said, meanwhile will develop a list of vacant commercial sites to assist businesses considering locating in Calabasas.

She said the entire project is expected to be completed by April.

The plan was hailed by Carol Amenta, chief executive officer of the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce.

But some involved in the project worried that some business people would view the census as a ploy to find new sources of revenue, namely, by identifying all the city’s businesses, then passing an ordinance requiring them to obtain business licenses.

However, City Councilman Marvin Lopata, a commercial real estate appraiser, said the city has no such intentions. For starters, he said, it doesn’t need the revenues.

“We have a very nice reserve,” he said. “We are very financially healthy.”

Davis Market Research Services, founded in 1970 by its president, Carol Davis, will be paid $10,530 for its participation in the project, according to city officials.