School Board Blocks Expansion of Anaheim Convention Center

Anaheim officials were searching Friday for a solution to an unexpected problem that put a proposed $50-million expansion of the city’s Convention Center on temporary hold.

The expansion was approved at a special meeting Thursday night of the Joint Powers Authority, made up of the City Council, the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees and the Community Center Authority. The agency was created to oversee the Convention Center complex.

But the status of the project was thrown into doubt because of the complicated power-sharing arrangement used to approve developments at the center. The school district board rejected the project, which prevents financing of the plan from going forward.

Vote to Accept

After a three-hour presentation, the council and the Community Center Authority voted to accept a proposal to build a 150,000-square-foot exhibit hall with an underground parking garage. The two agencies also voted to accept a recommendation to build a five-story parking garage on West Street near Convention Way. The environmental impact report prepared for the project concludes that more than 5,700 parking spaces will be needed to accommodate the expansion.

Convention Center officials argued that the West Street garage was the most feasible short-term option.

But that option has generated opposition from residents next to the site. They have voiced concerns about increased traffic congestion and noise levels.

The school district board heard many of the 75 people who gathered at the Convention Center to oppose the expansion, then cited its displeasure with the proposed parking garage and voted against the project.

Brown Opposed

Board member I.H. Brown, one of those opposed, said she was left with no choice: “The recommendation for this parking structure was included in the proposal, and we had to vote on that. I cannot go along with that recommendation. The garage is too near neighborhoods; there is just not enough room.”

City and convention officials, who had honed the project through years of development, were clearly stunned at the outcome.

“It’s a shock to me,” Anaheim Mayor Pro Tem Miriam Kaywood said. “It’s surprising because the discussion about ways we are improving the traffic flow was presented so clearly. The project has got to go forward because the economy of the city depends on it. But this delay can’t help.”

Lynn Thompson, the center’s general manager, said he was surprised at the vote. He said the board had misunderstood its charter and that it could have rejected the parking option but still have accepted the main expansion project.

“I had hoped we would be able to define the parking problems at the meeting, but that obviously didn’t happen,” Thompson said.

He said about the school board members: “They had options. But they did not offer any suggestion on how to resolve the problem. That would have helped.”

Residents opposed to the expansion were clearly pleased.

“Putting a hold on the project will give us more time to study the issue,” said Doug Kintz, president of Anaheim HOME, a homeowners group that successfully opposed a redevelopment project planned for the same area. “They have presented all the facts, and that’s the main reason why we’re against it at this point.”

Project Still Alive

But city officials said Friday that the project is very much alive.

“The action last night was not fatal to carrying out the expansion,” said Jack White, city attorney. “We are looking at alternative mechanisms for funding. It will take a few days to research, but I’m confident a project can be accomplished without the support of the (school) district.”

The city had intended to pay for the project by issuing $62.5 million in revenue lease bonds that would be financed with money generated from the city’s transient occupancy tax.

Through the more than three hours of presentations, technical and fiscal experts tried to show that the expansion would have few detrimental features and would prove a boon to the city.

Thompson said the 20-year-old center will lose many of its larger trade and consumer shows if expansion is not completed. The city would lose millions of dollars in revenue through lost trade, he said.

Thompson also revealed at the meeting that a plan to expand the existing three-level parking garage on Katella Avenue had to be scrapped because of design deficiencies. The garage, built in the early 1980s, was originally intended to be expanded by two levels. But Thompson said a preliminary study revealed that the building’s structural design would not support that addition.

City officials said studies of the deficiencies are continuing.