Schools Opposition Won’t Kill Anaheim Center Expansion

Financing of a $50-million expansion of the Anaheim Convention Center will proceed despite opposition by school trustees who say the project could worsen traffic and parking problems in the area, city officials said Monday.

The Anaheim Union High School District board of trustees voted 3 to 2 to oppose the project at a meeting of the Joint Powers Authority two weeks ago, prompting concern that the expansion might be stalled indefinitely.

City officials initially thought the school board’s rejection would prevent financing from going forward, even though the city had given approval. But because of changes in state law, the city no longer needs approval of the school board to issue bonds to finance the expansion, said deputy city attorney Joseph Fletcher.

“From a reading of recent changes in the law governing joint powers authorities it was our opinion that the school board’s approval wasn’t necessary,” Fletcher said. “Only the entity that has to guarantee funds for the project--the city--has to approve. We are now moving ahead with preparations and will begin seeking construction bids on the project in the next few months.”

To Proceed With Plans

Fletcher said the city will proceed with plans to issue $62.5 million in bonds to finance construction of a new 150,000-square-foot exhibit hall and underground parking garage but also hopes to persuade the three dissenting trustees to support the project.

“The Joint Powers Authority has not been disbanded; it’s still together and the city hopes to reach some sort of agreement with the school board,” Fletcher added.

But at least one school board member called for a new look at the Joint Powers Authority, the complicated power-sharing body created to oversee the complex.

The JPA--composed of the City Council and the council-appointed Community Center Authority as well as the school board--was created in the 1960s to issue bonds to construct the Convention Center so that the city did not have to go to the voters each time a bond was needed. It has overseen two previous expansions. The City Council and the CCA unanimously endorsed the current expansion project.

Tom Daly, a school board member who opposed the most recent project, said that the agency, in its present form, may not be workable and that the relationship among the three parties should be strengthened or the agency disbanded.

“I think a reassessment is in order,” Daly said. “Part of the confusion after the meeting of two weeks ago is traceable to this unusual partnership, two-thirds of which consist of the City Council and a committee appointed by the council. I’m not in favor of abolishing the JPA but the relationships should either be strengthened or better understood by all parties.”

Daly laid part of the confusion after the Oct. 29 JPA meeting on the school board itself, which could have endorsed the expansion project without accepting other recommendations associated with the plan, he said.

Included in the plan presented to the JPA was a recommendation to build a new five-story parking structure on West Street near Convention Way that Convention Center officials argue will be needed to accommodate growth.

But that option, one of several put forward by convention officials, generated public opposition from neighboring residents who voiced concerns about increased traffic congestion and noise levels. After hearing many residents at the meeting oppose the expansion, the school board, citing its displeasure with the proposed parking garage, voted against the project.

“The school board should probably shoulder part of the responsibility on that issue,” Daly said. “I was willing to discuss alternative parking arrangements while going forward with the main expansion project, but nobody put that on the table. The recommended action was presented as an all-or-nothing prospect.”

Daly said he has discussed the situation with a few city officials and said the full board will probably take up the expansion question at its meeting on Thursday.