Home / Archive / Yuba/Sutter: All Grown Up
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Regional Focus: August 2008
All Grown Up
Yuba City and its marketable identity
Story by Sukhjit Purewal
As one of the biggest economic players in the Yuba-Sutter area, Yuba City is learning that it needs a brand, an identity — then it needs to let everyone know about it.
That means not only hiring an economic development director to spearhead Yuba City’s bidding, but also encouraging city leaders to adopt a fresh, out-of-the-box approach on key fronts as officials develop a long-term economic development strategy, says Bill Meagher, broker and partner of Meagher and Tomlinson Co., a Yuba City-based real estate brokerage firm.
For instance, rather than looking at Feather River levees as a flood liability, consider them a marketable asset. If Sacramento can offer myriad entertainment along its riverfront, why can’t Yuba City consider a similar strategy?
“How realistic it is, I don’t know,” says Meagher, adding the idea is worth exploring. “When you are walking or riding your bike and you look over to the river, it’s something. That’s Mother Nature at its best.”
Meagher was one of Yuba City’s movers and shakers who met several times this spring at the behest of City Council to generate ideas on how to transform Yuba City from a fast-food stop along Highway 99 to a destination for more blue- and white-
collar jobs. “The biggest thing is establishing an identity for Yuba City,” says Meagher, who was elected to the City Council in 1986 and served as mayor in 1989.
There is a consensus that the $11 million renovation of downtown’s Plumas Street — featuring more upscale shops, eateries and bars — would give Yuba City a major boost when completed in 2009. “It’s going to be a great marketing tool for the city when it goes out to recruit businesses,” says Don Covey, president of the Yuba City Downtown Business Association and co-owner of Yuba City Florist.
Despite its sweeping landscape of fruit orchards, the departure of several processing plants has left Yuba City with the label “bedroom community.”
The city paid Chabin Concepts, a Chico consulting firm, $50,000 to complete an economic development study, facilitate discussions with the advisory board and implement resulting suggestions. The study found that nearly half of the city’s residents commute out of Sutter County to work. “It’s hard to fund your local needs based on an economy like that,” says Councilman Tej Maan. “We aren’t unique. Other Central Valley towns have the same problem.”
Fueled by affordable housing and proximity to employment hubs of Sacramento and Roseville, Yuba City’s population has ballooned from 36,700 in 2000 to 62,100 in 2007, posting increases of 25 percent in 2001 and 14 percent in 2005. By comparison, the Sacramento metropolitan area reported a growth rate of 2.4 percent and statewide growth of 1.6 percent per year.
Growth was responsible for spiking the general fund revenues by 109 percent during that stretch of eight years. That helped pay for amenities, including transforming downtown Gauche Park into a water park and swim center at a price tag of nearly $16.5 million.
“We are seeing it go through a metamorphosis,” says Doug Gibbs, who arrived in town in 1990 to headquarter his first business, Sports Rack Systems.
“We got our In-N-Out. We’re progressing,” Gibbs says. “There were no franchises when I first got here. It was more a redneck cow town.” Gibbs, chief operating officer of Gibbs Group LLC, designs, manufactures and distributes branded products from offices in Yuba City and China. The company employees a staff of eight “well-paid” employees, several of whom Gibbs says he hired away from Silicon Valley firms.
But growth hasn’t ameliorated the city’s ongoing unemployment struggles. Yuba City’s unemployment rate has been as high as 12.5 percent and never dipped lower than 10 percent between 2000 and 2007. During that same stretch, the unemployment rate in the Sacramento metro area and the state was half that number.
And the city’s median household income continues to lag behind the rest of the state and the Capital Region, registering at $85,000 last year, compared to $110,000 for the state and $97,000 for Sacramento.
Instead of fixating on the big-ticket fixes — repairs to levees and roads — that will have to be addressed eventually, the city should use the same pitch that brought Gibbs to the area. “We have a good, small community with inexpensive housing and very little traffic jams,” Gibbs says.
That’s the recipe for luring startups, says Gibbs, who serves on the Silicon Valley-based incubator advisory board The Enterprise Network. Startups, for instance, aren’t concerned about things like infrastructure and wastewater plants — just an Internet connection.
Realtor Meagher offers a similar perspective. Given its location and transportation limitations, Meagher says Yuba City isn’t a natural choice for manufacturing. Instead, he says the city might be suitable for research and development companies, especially with the city’s proximity to Beale Air Force Base in neighboring Yuba County.
One thing that isn’t going to help is adding big retail, Gibbs says. Sure, the Wal-Mart Supercenter might be popular with locals looking for bargains and with city leaders who can point to the jobs that were created after Harter’s Cannery shut its doors, but the bulk of those dollars benefit Bentonville, Ark., not Yuba City, Gibbs says.
In fact, the Chabin Concepts study found that the city overbuilt in several retail areas, including $62 million in “excess” restaurant demand. Retail employment accounts for 21 percent of the jobs in Yuba City, compared to 12 percent of the jobs statewide. The larger base is likely the result of service to tourists and a regional trade area, according to the study.
City officials say they are doing what they can to bring in more family friendly and economically friendly businesses. “We are trying to get everybody here, the ones who will keep tax dollars local. It takes time,” says Councilman Kash Gill. “We may not get a Macy’s, but we may get a Red Lobster.”
Part of the problem is that the city has done a poor job in promoting itself, Gill says. To address that shortcoming, the City Council is hiring an economic development director in the coming year. Although the city and Sutter County has worked with the Yuba-Sutter Economic Development Corp., Gill says the group hasn’t always been effective. “We need a greater focus on our economy locally,” he says.
For now, the advisory group has charged the city with one immediate task: create an inspiring self-image. Assistant City Manager Steve Kroeger, a Marin transplant and president of the Yuba City Rotary Club, says Yuba City is at an advantage because many cities start off in a negative position. “We are in a neutral position,” Kroeger says. “The outside world really doesn’t know what Yuba City is all about.”
