Plan Unveiled for Huge Disneyland Expansion : Parks: WESTCOT Center would adjoin existing site. But company says Long Beach is still in the running.

Ending nearly a year of speculation, Walt Disney Co. unveiled plans Wednesday for a $3-billion expansion at Disneyland that would include a second theme park patterned after its highly successful EPCOT Center in Florida.

A highlight of the expansion, to be called WESTCOT Center, would be a giant golden sphere called Spacestation Earth that probably would join the Matterhorn as Disneyland’s best-known landmark.

Also proposed for the 470-acre Disneyland Resort are three new hotels, a seven-acre public plaza and a collection of retail, dining and entertainment facilities called Disneyland Center to be built around a six-acre lake.

But even as they described the Anaheim plan in a series of briefings for reporters before a formal announcement of the proposal today, Disney officials emphasized that a decision on whether to build the company’s second Southern California attraction in Anaheim or in Long Beach will not be made until the end of the year. Even if the company chooses Anaheim, the plans would have to undergo extensive review, and the park would not be completed until at least 1998.

In Long Beach, the company last year outlined a proposed $2.8-billion ocean theme resort called “Port Disney.”

Wednesday’s announcement is likely to raise the stakes in a competition between the cities and already has raised the rhetoric. In a not-too-subtle bid to gain regulatory concessions in each location, company officials have said their decision will depend, in part, on “governmental approval and support . . . and community support.”

Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter, while praising Disney’s plans as “impressive and ambitious,” said “we need to know more.” He said the toughest part of the project lies ahead with what are expected to be protracted negotiations over how much the city would have to contribute in the way of transportation improvements and further land acquisitions.

Countered Long Beach Mayor Ernie Kell: “If they (Disney) want an ocean view, they are going to have to do it with a lot of water in Anaheim. . . . In Anaheim, they have to deal with a horrendous traffic problem. One only has to drive around the city to see that they have severe traffic problems there.”

A key measure of local government commitment in Anaheim is expected to be revealed when planners try to implement a proposed transportation plan that includes three new multistory parking structures near opposite ends of the park--one on the northwest side near Ball Road and a pair of others on the east side near the Melodyland Church.

Also planned is an expanded monorail system and an elevated people-mover system that Disney says would “significantly reduce” traffic near the park. The systems are designed to shuttle up to 8,000 tourists an hour from parking structures and hotels to the resort during peak times.

Also included in the transportation proposal are plans for new off-ramps from Interstate 5 that would directly feed the project’s parking structures. What has not been decided is who would pay for the company’s costly transportation improvements, and Disney officials said they would seek public assistance in financing the projects.

Company officials said cost estimates for the freeway improvements and land acquisition for the parking structures were not available, but Anaheim City Councilman Irv Pickler said, “I’m pretty sure the powers that be will not give away the store.”

Although the inspiration for the Anaheim project was drawn from the company’s EPCOT Center, Disney Development Co. Vice President Kerry Hunnewell said the Anaheim proposal, because of space limitations and its urban setting, presents significant challenges for company planners. Still, Disney officials estimate that the project would attract 13 million new visitors each year.

Late last year, the company quietly began acquiring tracts of land on the perimeter of Disneyland, aimed at paving the way for the company’s planned hotel district on what is now West Street, on the park’s western boundary. Included in those acquisitions were several low-rise motels where purchase prices were estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars per room.

Plans call for West Street--between Katella Avenue and Ball Road--to be renamed Disneyland Drive and become a gently curving, tree-lined boulevard and home to the addition’s three new hotels.

On the boulevard, the park’s main thoroughfare, Hunnewell said, architects would borrow themes from California’s structural landmarks, such as the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, to construct the New Disneyland Resort Hotel, an 800-room luxury facility that would be the focal point of the district.

On the same boulevard, plans call for an extensive renovation of the existing Disneyland Hotel to include a 300-room tower. North of the Disneyland Hotel, architects are proposing the Magic Kingdom Hotel, a 960-room low-rise structure to reflect the Spanish influence of the Santa Barbara Mission.

On the other side of the Disneyland Hotel, there are plans for what is being called the WESTCOT Lake Resort, a 1,800-room hotel encircling the project’s six-acre lake and lined by palm trees. Pedestrian bridges would connect the hotel to a monorail station at the water’s edge.

The network of monorails and planned people-mover systems would be designed to carry tourists to the seven-acre, open-air Disneyland Plaza, described by company executives as the resort’s hub, where visitors could enter the gates separating Disneyland from the WESTCOT addition.

Lindquist said that visitors would be charged separate admissions but that costs have not been determined.

Another proposed feature of the resort is a planned 5,000-seat amphitheater called the Disneyland Bowl. To be located between the main plaza and the Harbor Boulevard entrance to the park, the facility would be used for live entertainment events.

Probably the most ambitious attraction--Spacestation Earth--would be spread over what is now the Disneyland parking lot.

Expected to capture the concept of a futuristic “global village,” the Spacestation would sit on a grassy island at the center of the park. Using a network of thrill rides, visitors would be able to travel to theme areas representing “the four corners of the Earth.”

Beneath the Spacestation, visitors would be able to explore the wonders of nature in Ventureport. The attraction is planned as a “futuristic gateway” to pavilions dedicated to space exploration, biology, contemporary living and the environment.

Disney’s selection of WESTCOT--a theme that echoes the nearly decade-old EPCOT--was no surprise to entertainment industry analysts, some of whom predicted months ago that the company would not stray far from its successes of the past.

Bruce E. Thorp, a Philadelphia-based Disney analyst with Provident National Bank, said the EPCOT theme has “shown itself to have tremendous lasting power that lends itself to the development in Southern California.”

“There is nothing in their plans that disappoints me or surprises me,” Thorp said. “I would be more concerned if Disney went off on a tangent they had not done before.”

The only downside to the Anaheim development, Thorp said, was the limited amount of space. The current Disneyland site is spread over about 80 acres, while plans for the WESTCOT addition call for up to 100 acres of theme entertainment, more than 100 acres for hotels and dozens of acres reserved for parking. The company now has only about 100 acres and is negotiating for more.

“Because of the limited acreage, everything would have to be much more compact,” he said.

By comparison, Euro Disneyland, under construction near Paris, is about 5,000 acres; Disney World in Florida is 28,000 acres. The company is eyeing a 360-acre site in Long Beach near the Queen Mary, but a substantial amount is under water and would have to be filled.

Thorp said the scope of Disney’s plans in Anaheim might accomplish what company executives are aiming for: a tourist destination with the potential to keep visitors at the resort for up to a week. Company officials say visitors usually remain at Disneyland only one or two days.

“This would strengthen Anaheim’s drawing for people who wouldn’t otherwise plan to make a trip to Disneyland,” Thorp said.

From a business standpoint, analysts say, directly linked theme parks could amount to the closest approximation to Disney’s successful formula in Florida. There guests stay for up to a week--often without leaving Disney property--spending millions at company-owned parks, hotels, restaurants, golf courses and shops.

Long Beach vs. Anaheim

With the unveiling of the Anaheim project, the Walt Disney Co. now has two major Southland parks on the drawing board with immediate intentions of building only one. Here is how Anaheim’s second attraction stacks up with the proposed Port Disney in Long Beach.

Long Beach Anaheim Port Disney Theme Disneyland Resort $2.8 billion Cost $3 billion 360 acres Size 470 acres 37,000 jobs Employment 37,000 jobs 10 million Annual visitors 13 million DisneySea, a mix of thrill Attraction WESTCOT Center, a futur- rides and attractions de- istic world centered on a signed to introduce tour- giant golden sphere called ists to the undersea world. Spacestation Earth. Five New hotels Three 3,900 Hotel rooms 5,100 Queensway Bay to be Amenities Hotel district connected to retail center of shopping, shopping and dining dining and entertainment district called Disneyland complex. Center. A network of street Expanded monorail shuttles, water taxis and Transportation system, moving sidewalks possible monorail system. and new people-mover system. Five years Construction Six years

Source: Walt Disney Co.