Burbank Asks Dismissal of 2 MCA Suits

The City of Burbank, denying charges of secret dealings, has gone to court in the latest legal action generated by the battle between two rival entertainment giants over the development of a 40-acre downtown site.

Attorneys for the Burbank Redevelopment Agency have asked for the dismissal of two lawsuits by MCA seeking to overturn a tentative agreement between Burbank and Walt Disney Co.

The agreement gives Disney exclusive rights to negotiate with the city for development of a multimillion-dollar entertainment, office and retail center.

Thomas J. Feeley, one of the attorneys hired by Burbank to handle the dispute, said a motion was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Friday, denying charges by MCA that the agreement was made illegally in secret meetings.

Wants Case Heard in Burbank

The motion also asked that the case be heard in Burbank Superior Court instead of Los Angeles Superior Court.

“Almost all of the witnesses in this case work in Burbank City Hall, which is 100 yards away from the Burbank courthouse,” Feeley said Tuesday. “It would be a tremendous expense of time and gas for those people to go all the way downtown.”

But attorneys for MCA said they would oppose the proposed courtroom change.

“There are two judges in Los Angeles who do nothing but hear cases” similar to the MCA suits, Greg Stone, an MCA attorney, said. “It would just be a lot more appropriate for this case to be heard in Los Angeles.”

The Burbank City Council, which is also the city’s redevelopment agency, voted in May to award Disney the exclusive right to develop plans for the retail-entertainment center in downtown Burbank. The agency also awarded an option to Disney to purchase the site for $1 million.

Feeley repeated denials by council members that they held illegal secret meetings with Disney representatives, which would violate the state’s Brown Act requiring government bodies to make decisions in public. Members have said that at no time did a majority of the five-member council meet with Disney executives, and that no formal decision was made on the agreement before the public meeting May 5.

Asked Voiding of Pact

The first MCA lawsuit, filed June 25, asks that the agreement be terminated and that dealings on the site’s development be open to the public and other developers, including MCA.

The second lawsuit, filed July 6, states that the city failed to provide an environmental impact report or specify the costs of the agreement.

A hearing on the motion to change the trial’s location is scheduled Aug. 13 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

MCA attorneys also are planning to take depositions from Disney and Burbank officials Aug. 26, Stone said. He said specific Disney and Burbank officials to be questioned have not been identified.

Disney was not named as a defendant in the lawsuits.