Fairgrounds Development: Self-Sufficiency Is Goal : But Plans for More Building Are on Hold

Seven years ago, officials at the Orange County Fairgrounds laid out an ambitious future for the 165 cres of prime real estate in Costa Mesa.

The grounds would have an amphitheater to feature top-name performers, a 150-room hotel, a 10,000-seat stadium, equestrian center, cultural center and commercial-recreation center.

It was all part of a long-range dream that fair officials hoped could be fulfilled by 1986. It also was a long-range gamble that the new development would, in turn, generate the $10 million needed to rehabilitate the core of the fairgrounds: the aging exhibit buildings built in the 1930s and ‘40s.

The goal, said General Manager Norb Bartosik, was not to make money, since the fairgrounds is a nonprofit, state-run organization, but to be self-sufficient. “We would be one of the very few fairs in the country” able to pay for all improvements out of their own profits, he said.

The amphitheater, equestrian center and a scaled-down version of the stadium have been built since the release of the master plan in 1978. A 215-room Ramada Hotel is expected to be opened in January, 1987.

But the rest of the dream has been put on the back burner. The recreation center may become a parking lot, and the cultural center, if it is built at all, will be a shadow of the original plans.

Despite neighbors’ complaints and lawsuits over noise and traffic from the amphitheater and hotel, fairgrounds officials insist that things are going well. Howard Dickerson, president of the Orange County Fair Board, a state agency hose members are appointed by the governor, said such complaints are unavoidable as Orange County becomes more urban.

“This is an Orange County facility, not a Costa Mesa facility,” he said. “Even though we understand and have worked hard to solve the traffic problems and the noise roblems and other problems related to progress, we also recognize that there’s a tremendous amount of enjoyment and benefit, not only from a recreational point of view but from an economic one, too.

“Certainly we want to reduce the noise to an acceptable level, but it’s unreasonable for anyone to expect that those problems will ever be back like they were in the good old days.”

Members of the fair board say necessary improvements, including a $2-million turn lane at Fair Drive and Newport Boulevard, $4 million in underground projects such as new electrical wiring, and refurbishment of the exhibit buildings can begin now.

Some of the construction projects may never get started, however. Board members say unexpectedly high revenues (especially from the weekend swap meets on the grounds, which were expected to pull in about $350,000 in the last year but brought in $1.8 million) and the need for more parking space and other improvements led them to commission a re-evaluation of the master plan. That study is being done by POD Inc. of Santa Ana.

Site May Be Parking Lot

For example, the corner of Arlington Drive and Fairview Road, where there was to be a commercial-recreation center with tennis courts, a skateboard park and shops, probably will be a parking lot. “If you asked me to vote today, I’d vote to pave it over, because we need parking more than anything else,” said fair board member Clinton Hoose.

The cultural center, in which planners envisioned a 400-seat civic playhouse, movie theater, restaurants, art galleries and shops, will be scaled down, Dickerson said, if it is built at all.

To make more parking space, the stadium, home of speedway motorcycle races and rodeos, could be moved southeast to a site now occupied by an equestrian ring.

And a new entrance west of the current one is planned. “We’ve got a pathetic main entrance here,” said Dickerson.

Officials emphasized, however, that no new projects can begin until the master plan re-evaluation is completed next year. “Even if there were major plans for additional expansion,” said Dickerson, “you really are talking about something that would take place maybe five, six years from now.”

The hotel will be built, provided financing can be arranged. “The problem now is that the occupancy rates look pretty bad until about 1989,” said board member Larry Arnold, chairman of a committee overseeing the project. “The projections on an overall basis are something like 55% occupancy.

“But we believe--I think rightfully so--that this particular facility is a little bit different than anything else because this is the only exposition facility where you can hold trade shows. We’ve got some guaranteed room rents during the fair, and the amphitheater will rent a lot of rooms.”

Study on Hotel

Rates will be lower than at other hotels in the area at about $75, a study commissioned by the board found. That report also predicted the fairgrounds would receive $340,000 a year from lease of the hotel site.

“We’d like to see everything developed,” said Stan Seiden, president of Nederlander-West Inc., the amphitheater’s parent company. He said some acts refuse to play there now because of the noise problem (Costa Mesa has filed suit against Jefferson Starship, Rod Stewart and other performers, alleging violations of the city’s noise ordinance) but added that there are “plenty of others available.”

Neighbors shudder at the thought of further construction on the fairgrounds. They argue that the hotel would only aggravate problems they’ve been facing since a Barry Manilow concert opened the amphitheater in July, 1983.

“It will make the neighborhoods into slums,” said Russell Millar, president of Concerned Citizens of Costa Mesa. “If the development goes on in the same hurried, unregulated manner it has so far, it definitely will. The quality of life here has already suffered immeasurably.”

He said the hotel would push the swap meet closer to homes and bring more traffic and noise.

In addition, he said a new environmental impact report wasn’t written when the amphitheater was expanded from the original 8,000-capacity to its current 18,500, or when the hotel project was enlarged from 150 to 215 rooms.

He said the citizens committee protested at a recent public hearing and was told that “proper mitigation procedures” would be followed. “That sounds nice, but we heard the same thing from the Pacific Amphitheatre people three years ago,” he said. “It looks like we’re going to have to live with it.”

Couldn’t Get Loan

Lance Thompson-Hailstone, president of the homeowners association of Mesa del Mar, north of the fairgrounds, said the impact of the amphitheater’s proximity hit home recently when tried to get a home-improvement loan. “As soon as they found out where we lived, they wouldn’t even send me an application,” he said.

Thompson-Hailstone said the fairgrounds gets special privileges that other agencies don’t. “If a private firm tried to pull something like this, they’d be all over them like a cheap suit,” he said.

Because an environmental impact report was written for all projects following the release of the master plan, Hoose said, no additional report was deemed necessary when the amphitheater and hotel plans came up for approval. A new report on the hotel alone would have cost about $60,000, he said.

Bartosik stressed that a full environmental report would be made after the re-evaluation of the master plan.

Dickerson said he believes most county residents support the amphitheater and the other plans for the organization, which now calls itself the Orange County Fairgrounds and Exposition Center. “If we had a vote on whether to have the amphitheater here, the people of Orange County would vote overwhelmingly in favor of it,” he said. “Would (the neighbors) vote for it? Of course not. Would I if I lived there? No.”

Neighbor Millar said conditions have improved, largely due to earlier concert starting times, the construction of baffles and issuance of parking permits for residential streets, but he said they are still far from acceptable. “Some (concerts) are very bad. The most recent one--Tears for Fears, I think it was--and The Tubes--another awful group--were as loud as any,” he said.

Saves Taxpayer Dollars

But Dickerson, the fair board president, said that if the board did not pursue development aggressively, the taxpayers would have to pay “millions of dollars” to subsidize it.

This year’s budget is about $8 million. “We go into the taxpayer’s pocket this year for $85,000 of that $8 million,” said Hoose. “So, $7,915,000 is generated by revenue on this fairground. We’re not a liability to the taxpayers.”

The biggest chunk is the $1.8 million from the swap meets. The amphitheater generated about $212,000 and the county fair is a break-even proposition.

Once the grounds had a golf driving range, he said, which produced little income. The board could have kept the range, he said, “And then I suppose we could be accused of being anti-progress.”