The City of Vernon recently acquired the 11 acre Smurfit-Stone (formerly Container Corp) site on 57th Street, after the container manufacturer decided to close the Vernon plant and consolidate operations into other facilities. The City expects to have a contractor demolishing the existing facilities on the site beginning later this month. The City’s Industrial Development staff is currently in discussion with several large manufacturers about future use of the site.
The City has purchased several large land sites over the past several years in order to control the destiny who occupies the sites. The City prefers companies that manufacture, employ more persons than warehousing operations, and that use copious amounts of the power that the City sells. This interference by the government in the free market of real estate deals definitely rubs some people the wrong way.
After two years of deliberation a new City of Vernon Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance was approved by the City Council and became effective on January 16, 2008. Now the “2009 Issue” no longer will complicate owning property in Vernon. Industrial real estate brokers and prospective property buyers can now feel relieved regarding this issue.
However, not all is well in the Exclusively Industrial city. City officials are considering an increase in the Special Parcel Tax which was intended to support the improvement and maintenance of city streets. As the city’s businesses slowly changed from manufacturing to warehousing and distribution over the past few decades, the city sought increased revenues to address the infrastructure crumbling under the heavy truck traffic. Originally implemented in 1998, the tax applied to properties containing non-refrigerated warehouse uses, truck and freight terminal uses and other distribution uses.
