Group to Offer New Plans for Big A Parking Area Project

New building plans for the Anaheim Stadium parking lot are to be discussed at a meeting within the next 2 weeks between city officials and a development group representing the Rams football team, attorneys for the development group said Wednesday.

Plans for the meeting were disclosed as lawyers for the Angels baseball team made one last pitch to Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Domenichini in their attempt to choke off high-rise development on the 146-acre lot.

The battle over the future of the stadium’s parking lot has been raging since 1983, when the Angels filed suit in an effort to block offices and parking garages planned under rights granted to the Rams when the football team was lured to Anaheim 10 years ago.

The Angels claimed that their rights to the parking lot take priority over the rights granted to the Rams and that no garage or other high-rise structure could be built under the terms of their original lease.

Tentative Decision

After a yearlong trial, Domenichini issued a tentative decision signaling that he would prohibit plans to convert any of the current ground-level baseball parking to high-rise garages. But he also indicated that unspecified areas of the lot may legally be used for the sort of development the Rams want to undertake.

Attorneys involved in the case continued Wednesday to disagree over the meaning of the tentative decision as they argued about how the final judgment should be worded.

The baseball team remains confident the judge ultimately will bar any development on the lot, according to Angels attorney William Campbell. Nonetheless, the team’s lawyers Wednesday again urged the judge to void a clause in its original stadium lease giving the city exclusive control over any part of the lot not needed to provide 12,422 parking spaces.

“We’re asking for a judgment that says, as a matter of law, the lease says development won’t be permitted regardless of how many spaces are committed to the Angels,” Campbell said.

A consultant’s report prepared for Anaheim Stadium Associates, the partnership formed to develop the parking lot under the rights granted to the Rams, was completed last week, according to partnership attorney Al Augustini. Options in that report are to be reviewed and then discussed with the city, Augustini said.

“We’re ready to go. We’re going to keep pushing,” Augustini said. “If the Angels don’t want to talk, we will go forward with the development. If they want to appeal, we’ll go along for the ride.”

The group’s consultant has studied how the parking lot might be reconfigured to provide baseball parking while still leaving room for development. Augustini said he believes that there will eventually prove to be enough room for most of the first phase of the group’s original development plans.

Originally, four high-rise office towers were approved by the city on 20 acres. Now, Augustini said, he believes that 15 acres will be available and that the original tower plans might still be used.

In contrast to last summer, when lawyers for both clubs were predicting appeals, on Wednesday neither side saw appeals as a certainty. Both clubs and city representatives have said they believe that out-of-court discussions might help settle the case, but no negotiations have been scheduled.

Augustini said any new building plans approved by the city would be submitted to Domenichini, who has said he will remain involved in the case.