Crime, Traffic Fears Cited at Hearing on Sports Arena

A handful of neighbors in the area of the proposed Santa Ana indoor sports arena said Monday that the 20,000-seat facility will cause traffic, crime and other nuisances.

“Santa Ana needs an arena like it needs a hole in the head,” said Shirley Gates, who owns property in the area.

Gates was one of four people who spoke against the proposed arena at a public hearing Monday night before the Santa Ana Planning Commission. Gates and her husband, Niles, who manages several industrial buildings near the Edinger Avenue and Lyon Street intersection where the arena is proposed, said rock concerts at the facility will chase away local businesses.

Other business owners also said the arena would increase traffic and attract unsavory characters to the largely industrial area.

The environmental report prepared for the arena’s private developers, Spectacor Management Group and MCA Entertainment, projected that Santa Ana’s arena would create significant traffic congestion when events begin or end during rush hour. But the $75-million facility will provide 244 more jobs and “visually attractive” new buildings, the report said.

Santa Ana and Anaheim each hope that building an arena will lure a professional basketball or hockey franchise.

Although the National Basketball Assn. has no plans for expansion in the near future, the National Hockey League’s board of governors decided last weekend to add up to seven franchises by the end of the century and three teams by the 1992-93 season.

The Santa Ana arena is projected to open in August or September, 1992. Construction is scheduled to begin on June 1, 1990, on 17 vacant acres at the southeast corner of Edinger and Lyon.

Meanwhile, Anaheim officials estimate that ground can be broken for their own 20,000-seat, $85-million arena in January and construction completed by fall of 1991. It is to be built on land purchased by the city next to a mobile home park on Douglass Road, north of Katella Avenue.

But the environmental report for the Anaheim arena has drawn criticism for downplaying traffic, noise and pollution effects of that city’s arena.

Residents opposed to noise and traffic were instrumental in defeating previous proposals for sports arenas in Santa Ana and Anaheim.

Jack Stanaland, president of Campanula Properties, owner of the Orangetree Mobile Home Park on Douglass Road, northwest of the stadium, criticized the Anaheim report and said he is prepared to go to court to challenge the document.

He said the city rushed the report in order to begin construction before the Santa Ana arena.

California Angels Executive Vice President Michael Schreter also maintains that Anaheim’s environmental report does not adequately consider increased traffic that will occur when events are held simultaneously at the stadium and arena.

“The traffic in the vicinity of that intersection (Katella and Douglass) and backing up onto the 57 (Orange) Freeway, will be terrible, if not gridlocked,” Schreter said. “We are concerned . . . for the safety and convenience of our fans.”

The Anaheim City Council is scheduled to consider approval of the report Friday. The report must be approved before construction can begin.