Coliseum Asks Tax-Free Bonds for Parking

The Los Angeles Coliseum Commission is seeking authority from the state to issue $75 million in tax-free bonds for the first phase of a plan to increase parking for the Coliseum, the Sports Arena and the museums in Exposition Park from the present 5,800 spaces to 20,000, commission officials said Friday.

Alexander Haagen, chairman of the commission’s Park Improvement Committee, said that if the bonds are approved next month, he is hopeful that construction of two huge parking structures, holding a total of 4,200 cars, can begin early in 1987 at about the same time the Los Angeles Raiders begin construction of their luxury boxes at the Coliseum.

The bonds must be approved by the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, whose members are Gov. George Deukmejian, state Treasurer Jesse Unruh and state Controller Kenneth Cory.

The committee is limited by federal law to approving $1.9 billion in such bonds in California in any given year, and there are usually requests exceeding that total.

Leaders Optimistic

But the Coliseum Commission, whose membership includes city, county and state representatives, is politically well connected, and its leaders are optimistic that the bonds will be approved. Last month, the commission won special congressional action exempting it from provisions in the new tax law that would have prohibited it from issuing tax-free bonds for parking projects.

“This is work that has to be done,” said William Robertson, the Los Angeles County labor leader who is commission chairman. “We have an ambitious program, and our goal is to make the Coliseum a state-of-the-art facility in every respect.”

Parking has long been a serious problem in the area, with thousands of people attending events there being forced to park on neighborhood streets and lots. There have been occasional violent incidents, including the murder in June of a 16-year-old Orange County girl who had come with her boyfriend to motorcycle races.

Haagen said the $75-million bond issue would finance construction of one below-ground-level facility, open to daylight on all sides, for 1,200 cars between the Museums of Natural History and Science and Industry, and a second, five-level garage, for about 3,000 cars, replacing an existing parking lot. The net gain would be about 3,200 parking spaces.

Haagen said the receipts from parking fees should cover the cost of paying off the bonds but indicated that the pricing structure had not yet been set.

Land Acquisition

A second phase of the plan will probably involve acquisition of land adjacent to the Coliseum and Exposition Park and the construction of more surface lots, he said. The total exemption approved by Congress was for $150 million in tax-free bonds.

The only bonds the Coliseum Commission has outstanding now are $4.1 million in Sports Arena bonds, upon which final payments will be made in 1993.

Haagen said no additional parking spaces have been provided at the Coliseum since it was constructed in 1923.