Economic Impacts and Tourism

 

• Want Tujunga to be gateway to the National Forest.
• NRA would bring more attention to the area.
• We are pleased that all three alternatives would provide a more coordinated mechanism to promote the local tourism economy.
• These mountains benefit our quality of life and the health of our economy by providing us with clean air and water and incredible natural beauty.
• Create a "friends of the park" for those who use it on a regular basis. You'd be amazed at how easy it would be to get support from loyal users.

• Southern California is in need of more stable recreational areas, and with a National Recreation Area designation, that would give the residents and visitors to Southern California more opportunity to visit the mountains.
• The draft report should analyze the prospective economic value of an NRA to communities adjacent to the San Gabriel Mountains. It should include figures on job creation and identify opportunities for green jobs, especially serving for historically under represented populations. The indirect benefits should illustrate the increase in tourism spending, improved property values for adjacent communities and forecast job creation by attracting new business. Much research has been done on the positive economic impacts of protecting open space.
• We support an alternative that includes the Puente Hills and federally recognizes the significance of its natural resources. It will not affect local land use controls and will not take local government control away. It will bring prestige and recognition to the area, most likely increasing tourism and positively impacting the local economy. 
• The benefits of this plan are numerous: more resources for park management, lower diabetes, increased diversity in these ecosystems, more tourist dollars, and reduced crime as children connect to a world greater than themselves.
• Having maintained trails in this area would not only give our local equestrians a safe place to ride, but would also attract visitors to trailer up and ride our beautiful mountains.
• Acton Town Council does not support Alternative Concept "A", and we conclude that the substantial and immitigable impacts of this alternative on the community of Acton are not balanced by any real and quantifiable benefits to either the San Gabriel watershed OR the residents of the Los Angeles Basin. Less obvious (but more worrisome) is the fact that increasing urbanite traffic loads into and through these rural communities will also increase the demand for urban-style commercial services such as fast food restaurants, gas stations, cafes, 24-hour grocery stores, motels, auto repair stations, etc. It is anticipated that the NPS will even support such commercial development in the rural areas surrounding the ANF, because without it, far fewer urban residents will avail themselves of the expanded recreational opportunities that the NPS seeks to develop with the SRS. The problem is that such urban-style commercial development is the antithesis of rural life, and when commercial development that serves non-resident purposes occurs in an existing rural community, the community does not remain rural for long.