From the Hesperia Star:

Doing business in Hesperia just became a lot cheaper.

On Wednesday, August 19, the California Department of Housing and Community Development announced that Hesperia was one of five new enterprise zones, along with Pittsburg, Sacramento, Taft and Tulare. Businesses can generate millions of dollars of tax credits for operating in the enterprise zones.

The five cities have been only conditionally designated at the moment, according to Steve Lantsberger, Hesperia’s head of economic development, but it’s essentially just a matter of some signing agreements between HCD and the city before it’s official.

“We spent a lot of time going through all of the requirements so that, if we were successful, there’d be very few things we’d have to do if we were conditionally designated,” he said Thursday. His office began working on the application 18 months ago, and the city will be an enterprise zone until 2024.

The enterprise zone covers most of the city, outside of residential areas. Businesses already operating in the zone as of August 19 are eligible, as are new businesses.

“The majority of the zone is the [commercial and industrial] developable property in the city,” said Lantsberger. “You’ve got I Avenue, Bear Valley, the industrial area, the freeway corridor, Main Street. … I’d say 95 percent of the businesses in the city are in the zone.”