Lawndale Economic Strategy

The two-square-mile community of Lawndale occupies a transitional niche within the South Bay sub region of Los Angeles County. Located between the industrial dominated interior cities and the increasingly upscale, residential communities on the coast, Lawndale retains the socio-ethnic diversity of the former yet shares the neighborhood dominated land use of the latter. Meanwhile, the City's recent economic growth reflects a residential slant: Lawndale has prioritized the preservation of its neighborhoods over the development of its minority commercial/industrial land. The City worked with Compass Blueprint to evaluate ways to stimulate new economic activity and to increase sales tax revenue.

Goals:

• Increase sales tax revenue in the city of Lawndale
• Become locally competitive in retail sales and growth
• Prevent local income from leaving the community
• Diversify from being a primarily residential focused community

Local and Regional Solutions:

This Compass Blueprint project focused on developing a series of economic development strategies for the City. The results of the Lawndale Economic Development Strategy project showed four strategies for increasing sales tax generation in the City, following a trio of multi-perspective analyses: Traditional market/demographic analysis of both the city and competing trade area; A parcel-by-parcel GIS land-use analysis of the city's commercial zones; An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in the city's current business patterns via sales, employment and location analyses of business sectors in the City.