Updating the Village Specific Plan 2009

The City of Big Bear Lake is holding a VILLAGE COMMUNITY PLANNING MEETING on August 31 at 6:00 PM at the Performing Arts Center. Call 909-866-5831 for more information.

Tag line on the Chamber of Commerce email is HELP THE CITY UPDATE THE VILLAGE SPECIFIC PLAN.

Along with a much needed update, Property and Business owners need to develop a strategy for implementing the Village Specific Plan in a measurable and steady progression. Simply having a specific plan for any area is just an exercise without specific goals set by the community and our elected leaders as evidenced by the progress made by the city and the current VSP.

This new effort is commendable but has to be sealed with an actionable plan to make necessary improvements and allow development that will allow us to better compete in the regional retail marketplace.

So Cal's Summer Vacation Plans

If there is any bright spot in the current economic downturn, it's the fact that many Southern California families are still going to take vacation this summer. AAA says that in fact vacation plans by Auto Club Members are off significantly compared to 2007 & 2008. http://news.aaa-calif.com/pr/aaa/summer-travel-survey-0609.aspx?ncid=6058

And sure there is belt tightening, but of the surveyed, only about 5% more than those surveyed in 2008 said they were going to spend less than last year while on vacation. But when you take into consideration that 40% of those surveyed are going to stay right here in California, there may be a bright spot in the numbers for Big Bear Lake.

Also in the survey, are some interesting hot buttons for vacation planners, something we have been trying to improve on when marketing our own marketplace here in Big Bear Lake.

"When rating highly important reasons for taking their first trip of this summer:

88 percent said the vacation destination was a highly important factor
73 percent cited cost
65 percent said entertainment/recreation
63 percent rated the ease of reaching the destination as highly important
57 percent cited proximity to family/friends
40 percent rated a friend’s/relative’s recommendation as highly important
40 percent cited a special event"

Big Bear Lake rates naturally high in several of these key areas or part of these areas. It would serve Retail Merchants, Lodges and Restaurants well to improve in weaker areas and then heavily promote our marketplace as the ideal vacation and leisure travel destination for Southern California on a permanent basis, all round.

Merchants, Restaurants and Lodges should be putting all their marketing efforts into letting leisure travel demographic know about just how Big Bear Lake fits into what they are looking for in a vacation or get-a-way.

Park City Utah

Some interesting facts off the Park City Website.

• Park City was founded as a silver-mining town in 1869. By 1900, it was a booming mining town with 10,000 residents and 100 saloons
• Second largest silver strike in U. S., 1200 miles of mining tunnels under the city; the deepest mining shaft is 2600’ Flagstaff Mountain was the first mining claim in the Park City area; George Hearst owned the Ontario Mine
• Summit County was one of the fastest growing counties in the US during the 1990’s
• Park City population: 8,066 in the City; 21,000 additional in Snyderville Basin
  Elevation: 7000’ at Main Street (ranges from 6500’- 10,000’)
• City Size: 17.6 square miles
• Average Daily Water Consumption: 4. 6 million gallons
  School Population: 4,336 (Fall 2008)
• Assessed Property Valuation: $4,635,372,939 (Primary residences); $5,602,376,327 (Vacation homes)
• Number of Primary Dwelling Unit: 3,179
• Number of Secondary Homes/ Units: 4,773
• Lodging capacity: 23,307(pillow count)
• Gross Taxable Sales: $450 million in City
• Number of Restaurants: 131
• Number of Park City Business Licenses: 1,917
• Number of Retail Store: 286 in Park City & Basin
• Number of City Police Officers: 24 full-time, 16 part-time
• Number of City Employee: 305 full-time equivalents
• Number of Miles of City Roads: 121

Fast Food Fatality

The Big Bear Lake Fast Food Franchise Burger King, on Big Bear Blvd., Closed and Boarded Up. This unattractive reality is just another in our ever growing list of retail vacancies. I hope the upcoming economic summit hosted by the Big Bear Lake Chamber of Commerce focuses on real strategy and plans to combat the 3 year decline in retail revenues the City has seen and promotes an emergency plan of action by civic and business leaders to stem the growing numbers of business failures in the valley. The questions and answers should pertain to; what are we doing? who is doing it? and when is it going to be done? What we don't need is eight hours of how we can all get along while going broke.

Arissa Turner on Burger King:
http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2009/05/06/news/doc4a00cdbb182f4998857814.txt

Big Bear Lake Retail to Debut Ad in Inland Empire Visitors Guide

A new 2 page ad in the Inland Empire Visitors Guide featuring the Big Bear Lake Retail Marketplace will be finalized this month. The glossy magazine format publication comes out in June, 2009 and is distributed at California Welcome Centers and Major Transit hubs in the Southland.

The ad targets Leisure Travelers, Getaway Couples and Families. We think Big Bear Lake has a bright future as a Leisure Travel Destination. If your business can participate in this off-the-hill marketing project, there are a few spaces still available for as little as $110.00 for the year! Contact Tim Breunig by 4/15/09 at 909-878-3556.

Check out the magazine at the visitinlandempire link in the nav bar.