Anaheim : Building Fee Approved for Area Near Stadium

New developments in an area surrounding Anaheim Stadium will be assessed a $4.12 fee for every square foot of building space that has not received final approval from the City Council, which gave initial approval to the fee Tuesday.

As new high-rise developments move into the stadium area, the council wants to tack on the additional fee to pay for such public improvements as streets and sewers.

Affected is a wedge-shaped area bounded by the city limits on the south, the Santa Ana River channel on the east, the Santa Ana Freeway on the west and a Southern California Edison Co. easement on the north that lies between Katella and Cerritos avenues.

During a public hearing Tuesday, several developers asked that their projects be granted a lower rate, saying that the proposed fee would place a burden on new construction.

Dennis Abramson, who represents Hanover Business Park and Golden West Business Park, called the fee “highly inequitable.” He said his company would have had “very strong second thoughts” about purchasing property if a $4.12 per-square-foot fee had existed in 1981 when the firm bought the land. Abramson has proposed razing the two business parks, which are on Katella Avenue within the development area, and replacing them with high-rise buildings, city associate planner Mary R. McCloskey said.

Richard Gardener, representing Stadium Business South Park, which is situated on State College Boulevard near Anaheim Stadium, said benefits from the fee will extend beyond the affected properties’ boundaries and “every (new) property (in the city) should pay a fair share.”

The $4.12 charge is lower than the $6.38 that was proposed originally. It would be reduced or eliminated, McCloskey said, once a permanent financing mechanism, such as an assessment district, is established for the public improvements. In the meantime, the fee, if approved on its final reading next Tuesday, will be applied to all new developments for an undetermined period, she said.

Developments that have already received approval of a site plan will get a break and pay a fee of $2.10 per square foot of new building space.

For Business Properties, for example, which already has two projects under construction and a third in the planning stages, the $2.10 fee would apply to the third phase--540,000 square feet of office space and 156,545 square feet of hotel space, McCloskey said.