Pasadena Chamber of Commerce

At its meeting of April 28th, the Chamber Board of Directors adopted a legislative platform that will serve as a guide for taking positions in the future.

The following was adopted by the Board:

Pasadena Chamber of Commerce Legislative Position

The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce supports a vibrant and prosperous economic environment, safe livable neighborhoods and economic opportunity for everyone in the greater Pasadena area.

COMPETITIVENESS:

The Chamber supports a competitive economic environment for the greater Pasadena area and supports efforts to enhance our competitive advantage. The Chamber recognizes that healthy and vibrant residential neighborhoods are essential to the well-being of Pasadena and we support reasonable protections for residential neighborhoods. The Chamber also recognizes that an equally vibrant business sector is necessary to provide employment, funding for vital public services and opportunity for Pasadena residents. The Chamber supports efforts to make Pasadena more business friendly through competitive taxation and fee structures, streamlined development and economic enhancement opportunities, appropriate and supportive land use policies and fiscal prudence and accountability by the public sector.

THE ENVIRONMENT:
The Chamber supports the City of Pasadena being a leader in the field of environmental stewardship. This includes water and energy conservation efforts as well as smart growth and planning. The Chamber is convinced that environmental stewardship does not have to come at a cost to local businesses or the economic environment in Pasadena. Environmental stewardship should not put Pasadena at a competitive disadvantage.
Environmental legislation, specifically AB 32 and SB 375, encourages development that is less environmentally impactful. The Chamber does not see these measures as restricting growth and development, but as encouraging economic development in ways that promote transit use, creating work spaces close to where people live and allowing people to live, work, shop and recreate in ways that minimize car trips. The Chamber encourages conservation programs that have a meaningful and positive impact on the environment and weigh and balance the economic impacts of such efforts.

WATER:
The Chamber supports initiatives throughout the State of California and the Southwest to provide adequate water to meet our state’s needs, and our needs locally. These can include recycled water projects, conservation efforts and infrastructure improvements that support the ongoing vitality of our state and local communities. We do not believe the costs of such projects and initiatives must be borne solely, or even mostly, by the business community, but should be shared proportionally with residential customers. Similarly, we favor rewarding those who conserve water to the best of their ability, regardless of the amount of water used, while incentivizing water conservation through fair and equitable rate structures across customer classes.

ENERGY:
The Chamber supports reliable, inexpensive and adequate supplies of electricity, natural gas and other services vital to the operation of our local businesses. We support efforts to create and bring more renewable electrical energy to Pasadena as well as conservation efforts. We also believe it is important to encourage construction of transmission facilities that bring renewable electricity to Pasadena.

LAND USE:
The Chamber supports smart growth principles that encourage commercial and residential development near transit centers, as well as creation of employment centers that are easily accessible from places people live. While we support these principles, we do not believe these guidelines need to constrict growth and development. The Chamber supports maintaining our competitive economic environment as envisioned in Pasadena’s General Plan. The Chamber also supports land use regulation that is stable, easy to understand, simple to communicate, and approval processes that are standardized and predictable. The Chamber supports an excellent built environment in the greater Pasadena area. The Chamber, and Pasadena’s diverse business community, should be an active and meaningful participant in Pasadena’s General Plan revision.

TRANSPORTATION:
Effective transportation systems are essential to the prosperity of the Pasadena area. The Chamber supports projects, programs and policies that will lead to a comprehensive public transit system in Los Angeles County and throughout the State of California.  We support an equitable allocation of resources and projects so that every area of Los Angeles County can benefit from improved transit opportunities. We also support completion of the Gold Line Foothill Extension as a key part of a county-wide transportation solution. The Chamber opposes efforts that could restrict easy access to Pasadena’s employers, retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues. We also support making Pasadena’s destinations easy to access for visitors, residents and workers as well as allowing travelers and commuters to quickly pass through Pasadena with minimal impacts on local traffic.

EDUCATION:
The Chamber supports efforts to ensure that every job available in the Pasadena area has a qualified local employee able to fill the position. To that end, the Chamber supports efforts by the Pasadena Unified School District, Pasadena City College and our post-secondary education institutions, both public and private, to improve academic coursework, make curriculum meaningful for students through work experience and exposure to career education, and ensure that every student graduates with meaningful opportunities to pursue higher education and career opportunities. The Chamber supports ongoing educational opportunities that enhance our competitive workforce and ensure that workers can grow and develop.

PUBLIC FUNDING:

The Chamber supports adequate funding for the operations of our local municipal governments, particularly efforts to support our economic environment and the prosperity of our members and local business community. The Chamber supports fiscal responsibility on the part of government at all levels and encourages efforts to reduce governmental costs and the cost to do business in our state and locally.

CONSUMER EDUCATION:
The Chamber supports vigorous consumer and constituent education on all issues related to the environment, resources, land use and the economy. Where possible the Chamber feels agencies responsible for service delivery should make every effort to inform their constituencies, especially the business community, about regulatory changes, fee adjustments, resource allocation and impacts on economic growth and development.