And how does a city attract the businesses it wants?
Map of Farmington’s Metropolitan Redevelopment District (Courtesy of the City of Farmington)
Dear Know-it-all:
Why does the city allow so many fast food restaurants in the city? Aren’t there enough? What about ones with healthier options?
– No fries please
Dear Don’t,
Thanks for your question. You might be very surprised to learn that most cities don’t have much control over which businesses open in their town. Know-It-All recently sat down with Farmington Economic Development Director Warren Ansicker. Ansicker said that while there may be a list of businesses that want to open shop in town, there is little control over the decision.
Ansicker says that many national companies spend months researching before the first burger patty is flipped or product is sold. They are looking at our “market,” which of course includes Farmington and San Juan County, but also the surrounding areas. One of the things that makes our market unique is the fact that we are a retail hub and attract more people than San Juan County’s population of 120,418 would suggest. When you factor in the surrounding area population that comes to shop in Farmington, our “market” becomes much larger, approaching 300,000 people. Ansicker says that once companies discover and understand this, Farmington becomes a much bigger dot on their potential expansion radar.
Many national companies have criteria that must be met before they will even consider locating in a town. For example, they may require that 50,000 people live within a 5-minute drive of their intended location. That doesn’t work in Farmington/San Juan County because, although we have a large population, as you may have noticed, we are pretty spread out here in the West.
So why can’t cities and towns attract the types of businesses they want? Sometimes they can, but the final decision is up to the business, and ultimately, the decision of whether or not a business wants to open up shop in a community comes down to a real estate deal. If a business wants to buy land from a private owner, build a building and open up, that’s entirely up to both parties. So a business can buy land, tear down a pretty good looking building and build their own. There’s very little city officials can do to stop businesses from opening up in their town. Very little, but there is zoning.
Zoning is what cities do to allow certain businesses to locate in certain areas of town. Let’s say Mr. Know-It-All woke up one morning and decided he wanted to open a pig farm in the “vast” residential area of Farmington. I would find this very difficult, if not impossible, to do, because city zoning laws state pig farms cannot be located in residential areas. However, if Mr. Know-It-All wanted to buy land in an area zoned for a pig farm, he could. And the pigs would be happier than they would be in filth!
Ansicker said Farmington has several avenues to attract businesses it believes will bring economic benefits and that don’t duplicate services or products already in the city. The Metropolitan Redevelopment District is one of those avenues. The district stretches from roughly Apache Street south to the Animas River and is bounded by Butler Avenue on the east and Schwartz Avenue on the west. Ansicker said the MRA designation allows the city to offer incentives to businesses to locate in the area.
Ansicker said there are other avenues the city could consider if approached by a large company offering a unique product. One option might be to exempt the company from paying sales tax to the city for a few years, but the city hasn’t used that recently.
You might think these incentives and opportunities are only for large corporations or national chains, but think again. Ansicker says the same rules apply to small businesses looking to start up their own businesses. He says he’s open to working with anyone who wants to bring a unique service or job opportunity to the community.
Mr. Know-It-All, Scott Mikulin, is the general manager of San Juan College’s community outreach radio, KSJE 90.9FM. When he’s not answering questions here or on the radio, he teaches public speaking and mass media classes at San Juan College and serves on the boards of directors for San Juan United Way, Presbyterian Health Services and the San Juan Symphony.
If you have any questions about San Juan County, email him at SMichlin@tricityrecordnm.com, and if he doesn’t know the answer, he knows someone who does, and you can read about it on the Tri-City Record page.
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