Westdome Bonds Given Santa Ana’s OK

In a major victory for developers of the proposed Westdome, the Santa Ana City Council Monday night approved financing for the sports arena but did not commit itself to the project or to a downtown site.

After hearing two hours of testimony from residents on both sides of the issue, the council unanimously approved a $40-million industrial development bond issue that can be used to build an arena anywhere in the city.

The four-man Westdome Partnership would have the first right to any alternate site the city might choose, City Manager Robert C. Bobb said.

He said the move gives the city more flexibility and “absolute control” in selecting a site for the arena. The downtown site has been tabbed as the best location largely because the city owns the land, and, therefore, it would be less costly to develop there than at any of six other potential sites considered, Bobb said.

The actual project won’t come up for a final council vote until March. The financing, which usually is arranged after a project is approved, was considered beforehand because tax legislation now under consideration in Congress could eliminate tax exemptions for industrial development bonds for such uses as sports arenas.

The bond approved Monday will be sold and then put into escrow pending a final vote on the arena, said William Reynolds, representing the underwriters, E.F. Hutton. He stressed that the developers would be responsible for repaying the debt and the city would have no liability.

If the Westdome is rejected, the developers stand to lose about $1.2 million in interest to investors, Allan Durkovic, one of the partners said. He said letters of credit had been obtained from Mitsubishi and Crocker National banks to ensure that the developers would pay the interest.

The city discovered Friday that the type of bond officials were considering required that a lease be negotiated first, Deputy City Manager Rex Swanson said. “We were considering calling it off. We would not have come in (to the City Council) with a proposed lease agreement without an approved project,” Bobb said. “That would have meant a commitment to Westdome that we weren’t prepared to make yet.”

The partners are proposing a 20,500-seat arena at Flower Street and Civic Center Drive which they hope will attract a professional basketball team, indoor soccer, concerts, ice shows, circuses and conventions. They already have spent about $500,000, Durkovic said, including $100,000 for a refundable application to the National Basketball Assn. for a new franchise.

Councilman Dan Young said he would have voted “no” if his vote Monday meant approval of the downtown site. But he said even opponents of the downtown site shouldn’t oppose bonds that can be used anywhere in the city.

Mayor Daniel E. Griset said the Westdome’s downtown location is necessary to draw new business investment to an area that used to have little more than “bars, pawnshops, blood banks, flophouses and secondhand stores.” He said anticipated traffic problems from the arena can be solved with a careful plan, adding that “the traffic jams of 10 years ago were traffic jams of people trying to get out of town.”

Opponents of the bond financing, most of them members of Save Our Stadium, a group opposed to plans to demolish Santa Ana Stadium to make way for the Westdome, spoke for about 90 minutes Monday.

“I have no beef with the Westdome but I don’t think you should tear down that Eddie West (Santa Ana) Stadium,” Ferris Scott said. “This should be up to a vote of the people of Santa Ana. This is a democracy; let’s keep it a democracy.”

Stresses Other Site

Save Our Stadium spokesman Bob Lopez said he believed a trio of Newport Beach businessmen should have been invited to discuss their proposal for an arena in an office-commercial development at MacArthur Boulevard and Main Street. “We feel that’s the preferable site where we can have the arena, we can have the jobs and we can keep Eddie West Stadium.”

Another opponent, Ted Moreno, student body president at Santa Ana High School, cited the two CIF football championships won by city high schools--Saddleback and Santa Ana--last weekend.

“How can you consider tearing down the bowl when we just finished winning a championship? Two championships in one city,” he said. “Why don’t you just build the Westdome some place else?”

More than 200 people crowded the City Council chambers for Monday’s public hearing, many of them wearing red “The Westdome” buttons provided by the developers, who passed out flyers and collected about 1,300 signatures during a weekend canvass of the city.

Booster for City

Hector Godinez, who has served on several city commissions and is former president of the Chamber of Commerce, recalled a time in the 1950s when the city didn’t have “the courage” to pursue ambitious developments and fell behind other cities. “I want the city to be alive,” he said, adding that Santa Ana “deserves to be other than second cousin to other cities in Orange County.”

Real estate broker Hal Butts said he believes businesses would be eager to locate in Santa Ana if Westdome is built. His business, he said, means, “I attempt to sell this city, and I’ve been turned down by the best. Please pass these bonds, approve the Westdome and make my job a little easier.”

Before a final agreement for the Westdome can be considered, the city must approve a final environmental impact report and come up with a plan to alleviate such anticipated problems as traffic, parking, litter and noise, Bobb said. “I’m recommending that those agreements (with residents of the Washington Square and Flower Park neighborhoods) be part of the final package,” he said.

Councilmen Robert Luxembourger and Wilson Hart joined Young in saying they could not vote for the bonds Monday if their votes constituted final approval of the arena. “If we were locked into the downtown site by this action, I would probably vote no,” Young said.

Opportunity Stressed

But, Hart said, “If we don’t make the move we’re making tonight, we probably turn our backs on that opportunity. I think we’ve turned our backs on too many opportunities in the past that we’ve suffered for.”

Reynolds said the state had extended the deadline for sale of the bonds from Dec. 20 to Dec. 31. “There will be a lot of difficulty (selling the bonds so quickly),” he said, “but we’ll get it done.”

The federal government limits the amount of bonds states can sell. The $40 million includes $37.9 million of California’s allocation and $2.1 million of the city’s allocation.