CITY CLINCHES COSTCO DEAL DEVELOPER WILL GET PARKLAND, SALES TAX BACK.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer LANCASTER - The city will give up a slice of Lancaster City Park to keep Costco and its $470,000 a year in sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. revenue. Capping two years of controversy, City Council members voted for three interlocking interlocking /in·ter·lock·ing/ (-lok´ing) closely joined, as by hooks or dovetails; locking into one another. interlocking Obstetrics A rare complication of vaginal delivery of twins; the 1st deals that give Costco 4.5 acres at the park's southern edge and a share of future sales tax for about seven years. ``We think the exchange is appropriate,'' City Manager James Gilley said before the 5-0 council votes Tuesday night. ``It's the right thing in order to keep this major, major sales-tax generator in our community.'' More than 220 people - many wearing yellow Costco stickers, but others opposed to giving up parkland - packed City Hall's council chambers, with dozens standing because all the seats were taken. Former Mayor Fred Hann and representatives of the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Chambers of Commerce were among 22 people who spoke in favor of the deals, saying they would provide tax revenue to support city services The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. and result in the creation of the 68-acre Whit Carter Park in compensation. Former Mayor George Root and a leader of the Antelope Valley Trails, Recreation and Environmental Council were among 11 people who spoke against the deals, calling them ``corporate welfare'' and a threat to the park. Costco wants to build a 148,000-square-foot warehouse store with room for a gasoline gasoline or petrol, light, volatile mixture of hydrocarbons for use in the internal-combustion engine and as an organic solvent, obtained primarily by fractional distillation and "cracking" of petroleum, but also obtained from natural gas, by station and other features that its 125,000-square-foot Valley Central shopping center shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marketplaces—in that the shops are usually amalgamated into store is too small to offer. City officials said they are convinced Costco would move to Palmdale - where competitor Sam's Club Sam's Club is a membership-only warehouse club owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. History The first Sam's Club opened in April 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma in the United States.[1] Sam's Club is named after Sam Walton. is expected to open a warehouse store at 10th Street West and Avenue O-8 in 2003 - if they didn't find a place to put it in Lancaster. The city spent more than a year fighting with the 99 Cents Only chain, trying to acquire land to expand the present Costco store. Eleven other sites were turned down, officials said, because they were too far from the freeway, had legal entanglements such as deed restrictions at the former Sears shopping center at 10th Street West and Avenue K, or would draw opposition from neighbors. Acting as both the council and the city's redevelopment board, council members Tuesday after a 2 1/2-hour hearing approved three interlocking deals: --Costco gets 4.5 acres - down from the originally proposed 4.8 acres - at the 70-acre park's southern edge, plus 13.6 acres of vacant city property just south of the park at Avenue L and 10th Street West. Costco also gets back a portion of the sales tax and property tax that will be paid annually by its new store, and from whatever business moves into its old property, to help finance the larger building. The tax rebate tax rebate n → devolución f de impuestos; reembolso fiscal tax rebate n → ristourne f d'impôt tax rebate , written as a ``public parking'' lease to meet a recent court decision, will amount to about $9 million, expected to be collected in about seven years. --Retail Value Investment Program, Valley Central shopping center's owner, will pay $3 million for the existing Costco building - appraised at $9 million - and tear it down. The company may also tear down the nearby House2Home store, whose chain just went bankrupt, to build a new configuration of stores. --In compensation for losing the 4.5 acres at Lancaster City Park, the city acquired 18 acres from a developer and an additional 8.3 acres swapped for property in the Lancaster Business Park. That will be added to 20 acres donated last year by the family of pioneer Whit Carter and a 12-acre retention basin Noun 1. retention basin - a storage site similar to a detention basin but the water in storage is permanently obstructed from flowing downstream catchment area, catchment basin, drainage area, drainage basin, river basin, watershed, basin - the entire geographical to create a 60-acre park on Sierra Highway Sierra Highway is a road in Southern California, United States. It runs from Tunnel Station near the north limit of the City of Los Angeles, where it intersects with San Fernando Road and Foothill Boulevard, as well as Interstate 5, and continues north to Mojave, mostly paralleling near Avenue H. More land acquisitions are in the works, and Gilley said grading, installation of an irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. system and grass seeding could start in March at Whit Carter Park. Critics said they believe Costco can find a site that doesn't require diminishing the park. They criticized the city for subsiding sub·side intr.v. sub·sid·ed, sub·sid·ing, sub·sides 1. To sink to a lower or normal level. 2. To sink or settle down, as into a sofa. 3. To sink to the bottom, as a sediment. 4. a big business and said Whit Carter Park will be too far north for people who use Lancaster City Park. Root, the former mayor, said the deal was one-sided in favor of Costco. ``You're not really going to lease those parking spaces. You're going to give them the money,'' Root told the council. Resident Robin Collins said there is enough space on the other side of 10th Street West for Costco. ``I think they should be able to pay for their own land and not take our park,'' said Collins, who uncovered the city's plan for the park last June when she noticed a line painted across the grass where she walks her dogs. ``There's too much open land. They don't need to take our park.'' But other residents agreed the city needs to preserve its tax base and said the new Whit Carter Park will more than make up for the land given to Costco. ``You don't have to be a rocket scientist Rocket Scientist In the world of finance, these are people with science and math degrees who work in the finance field building highly advanced quantitative finance models. These models help banking, insurance and investment firms to price financial instruments. to realize you have to have tax dollars to provide services,'' resident Ken Jones sai |
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