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@benshoval
Benjamin Shoval promotes a small-government, low-regulation approach to economic development. Spearheading the revision of Yakima’s zoning ordinance, for example, Shoval promoted compressing usage types and eliminating code sections that identified specific business types like candy stores and toy retailers. While such provisions were added to the code to address specific situations through the years, they left the city with a cumbersome, overly-restrictive code. The new code provides two types of retail businesses: larger than 10,000 square feet, and smaller. Likewise, office space is a single category. Without the dozens of highly specific restrictions, the new code that Ben Shoval shepherded to completion permits businesses to operate and grow without devoting time and resources to overcoming artificial barriers to their success.
As the chair of the Planning Commission of Yakima, Washington, Ben Shoval champions a realistic approach to overhauling the city’s zoning system to reflect the dramatic economic changes that have transpired since the system was last revised in the 1970s. One of his major objectives is to address the city’s declining sales tax revenues by zoning more locations for retail use. The problem with the current zoning, he points out, is that land currently zoned for retail use is often contaminated, and the costs associated with cleaning it up usually are prohibitive. Ben Shoval, who also owns and operates a small business, has thoroughly researched the situation and points out that there is a good supply of uncontaminated property that could easily be developed into prime retail space, but it is currently restricted to industrial development.