Fullerton : City Acts on Museum Plaza, Airport Projects

The proposed Fullerton Museum Plaza concept is inching its way toward reality.

City Council members last week, acting as the redevelopment agency, unanimously approved $5,000 as a deposit on key property for the $12-million downtown project.

The non-refundable deposit will freeze the acquisition of a one-acre parcel at 125 E. Wilshire Ave., the centerpiece for the proposed plaza. The owner of the land has agreed to the city’s offer of $180,000 for the site and to hold up escrow until July 31, when the city will decide whether to continue with the plaza concept.

Plans for the plaza include a giant-screen theater, a museum with traveling exhibits and shopping galleries.

Economic, design and traffic studies for the project are expected to be completed by the end of this month, said Ron Hagan, city director of community services.

Hagan said city staff members will review the studies and recommendations through June, with a final decision due by early July.

In other business, the council unanimously approved $450,000 of construction work for a city-owned and operated hangar complex at the southeast corner of the Fullerton Municipal Airport.

The city began purchase of the four-acre site for $1.6 million last September. The city has also agreed to relocate the existing hangar at city expense to another airport within a 50-mile radius of Fullerton--possibly to an airport in Riverside, Lake Elsinore, Big Bear or Camarillo.

Plans for the project call for construction of about 54 hangars, security lighting, restrooms, paving and drainage as well as electrical and telephone hookups in hangars.

The council also voted to employ the Irvine-based engineering firm of Kennedy/Jenks/Chilton to design the hangar complex for a fee not to exceed $20,000.