Alleges Secret Deal : MCA Sues to Halt Burbank-Disney ‘Backlot’ Center
MCA filed suit Thursday to overturn a tentative agreement between Walt Disney Co. and the City of Burbank to develop a $150-million to $300-million shopping center and tourist attraction in downtown Burbank.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that secret negotiations between Burbank and Disney prevented MCA and other developers from making competing proposals for a 40-acre city-owned site.
The suit, which names only the Burbank Redevelopment Agency as a defendant, asks that the agreement be canceled and that future dealings on the site’s development be open to the public and other developers.
The accusations continue a bitter feud between MCA and Disney, which have been in a race to construct competing “studio tour” attractions in central Florida.
Disney’s Burbank project, called the Disney-MGM Studio Backlot, would be located just a few miles from MCA’s Universal Studios Tour attraction.
“This is an effort by MCA to get consideration of their proposal by Burbank,” said Ronald L. Olson, an attorney for MCA. “We believe that would be in the city’s best interest as well.”
Although Disney is not a defendant in the suit, MCA attorneys asked the court to order a Disney representative to testify in a deposition about the company’s negotiations with Burbank.
The suit repeated MCA’s claim in recent weeks that the agreement between Disney and Burbank violated the state Brown Act, which prohibits city councils, school boards and other governmental agencies from meeting on public issues in private, except in certain circumstances, including land negotiations.
According to the suit, the majority of the Burbank City Council has had several meetings with Disney executives since February that should have been advertised and open to the public. The suit alleges that these meetings, along with phone conversations and a slide presentation by Disney executives, were held “for the purpose of obtaining a collective commitment or promise” to approve the proposal.
Council members secretly agreed to approve the project before the May 5 meeting at which they voted unanimously to give Disney an option to purchase the 40-acre site for $1 million, the suit says.
Creative artists and engineers are developing more detailed plans for the project, which will include offices for Disney’s animation department, a “Hollywood Fantasy Hotel” and a ride in which the public will be taken through famous movie scenes. The plans are to be presented to the council in November.
Burbank City Atty. Douglas C. Holland said the suit was an “obvious attempt by a multinational corporate conglomerate to dash the dreams of a city that wants a retail shopping center.” He said that the council held no private meetings with Disney and that no final decision was made on the project before the May 5 meeting.
Holland said the suit is a result of the battle between MCA and Disney and has nothing to do with Burbank.
A special meeting of the council will be held Monday to discuss the suit, city officials said.
Disney officials had no comment.
MCA Vice President Jay Stein last month accused Disney of “blackmail tactics,” saying that Disney privately offered to withdraw its Burbank proposal if MCA would give up its proposed Florida studio tour.
Stein acknowledged that Burbank Mayor Michael Hastings had solicited a proposal from MCA in April for the development of the site but said he never received information that he requested from Hastings about the property.
