Fountain Valley Successfully Navigating Economic Turmoil, Ex-Mayor Says

Thanks to proactive economic policies and stategic spending cuts, Fountain Valley has managed to maintain its level of service to its residents despite trying economic times, city council member and former mayor Steve Nagel said Tuesday in his State of the City address.

Nagel talked about what has become known as "The New Normal," a term commonly used to describe the difficult economic climate America's been facing in recent years. Thanks to budget cuts made before the economy went south, Fountain Valley has been able to avoid many of the budget shortfalls facing other cities, and has even managed some economic gains in recent years, Nagel said.

Since the last census, the city's taxable sales have increased by 10 percent $957 million a year, and the median househould income has grown by 15 percent to more than $81,000 a year. Property values have also held steady in a historically dismal housing market.

Nagel also outlined many of the challenges still facing the city, foremost among them the recent elimination of revelopment agencies throughout the state. Without RDA money in its coffers, Nagel said, the city will have to rethink or postpone previously planned infrastructure and affordable housing projects.

Even without RDA money, Nagel reported, several housing and industrial projects are in the works or already thriving. The Summerstone and housing developments have already begun construction and are selling despite a bad housing market. On the commercial side, Hyundai's is on the horizon, and Yakult is set to bring it national headquarters to Fountain Valley in the near future.

Infrastructure projects completed or in the works, Nagel said, include several street resurfacing projects on the city's major corridors, streetlight synchonization and sewer upgrades.

As reported earlier this week, in Fountain Valley. Areas of concern for the department, Nagel said, focus on a shift of inmates from state prisons to county jails, and subsequently back into local communities.