Fremont tries home-grown stimulus help

FREMONT — City leaders hope a package of incentives they have crafted can jump-start business activity in Fremont.

The incentives can’t come soon enough for the city’s sizable small-business sector, said Dirk Lorenz, owner of Fremont Flowers and Gifts in the city’s Centerville district. A former member of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, Lorenz said many small-business owners tell him their revenue has dropped 20 percent to 30 percent compared with last year.

City officials hear their pleas. Like their counterparts in the federal government and cities such as Boston, San Francisco and even the tiny burg of Lakeport near Clear Lake, members of the Fremont City Council approved a stimulus package March 3 as a way to counteract one of the worst economic downturns.

The package contains temporary and permanent provisions, including reducing developer impact fees, deferring the collection of those fees, exempting cleantech firms from paying the city’s business license tax, and increasing the city’s efforts to purchase products and services from Fremont businesses. The fee reductions and exemptions for business in the city of will remain in effect until at least Dec. 31, 2011.

Another proposal is to establish a foreign trade zone that would assist the city’s manufacturing sector. If approved the regulations would allow foreign and domestic goods to be brought in without formal customs entry or incurring customs duties, excise taxes or tariffs.

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