Mayor Expecting Disney Report to Be ‘Puff, Fluff’ : Development: The company will release an economic impact study of the planned resort today. Fred Hunter said he’ll wait to see Anaheim’s findings before reaching conclusions.

The Walt Disney Co. hopes to whip up public support for its Disneyland Resort proposal with the release of an economic impact study today, but a skeptical Mayor Fred Hunter said he thinks that the report will be overly optimistic and filled with “puff, puff, fluff, fluff.”

Hunter said he expects that Disney will try to paint its plans for a $3-billion expansion of Disneyland, including a world’s-fair-style theme park and three new hotels, in the best light. If a report prepared for a competing theme park/hotel proposal in Long Beach is any model, Disney officials will promise that its project will reap tens of thousands of new jobs and a windfall of millions of new tax dollars every year for the city of Anaheim.

The mayor said that while he will read the Disney report with interest, he will wait for the city to release its own benefits study before reaching any conclusions.

“We’re going to do our own fiscal impact report. I expect theirs to be kind of puffed up,” said Hunter, moderating his earlier strong support for the Disney project now that the city is in formal negotiations. “They want to look at the best-case scenario, and we want to look at the worst case.”

Today’s report is not likely to dig into some of the public costs of the project. Disney is expected to ask for hundreds of millions of dollars in public improvements for traffic, parking and other problems created by plopping a massive development into an urban setting. The project could also create other quality-of-life issues caused by an estimated 13 million additional tourists flocking into the area.

Kerry Hunnewell, a vice president for the Disney Development Co., said that the report being released today should serve as a starting point for the city’s own investigation of the implications of the project.

“It is expected the city will scrutinize the numbers, scrutinize the assumptions,” he said. “We hope they will come to similar conclusions.

Anaheim’s independent study should be ready for release by mid-July. Disney is footing the cost of the city’s report, but the city says it retains complete control. Disney is also paying for a similar independent study for the city of Long Beach.

Ken Stone, Anaheim’s budget manager, said the two reports could differ because the city report may be based upon different assumptions than the Disney report. Also, the city is preparing other reports that could have a direct bearing on the Disneyland Resort project, such as a study of Anaheim’s entire commercial-recreation area stretching from Disneyland 2 miles east to Anaheim Stadium.

As announced last month, the Disneyland Resort project would consist of a second Anaheim theme park, Westcot, based on Disney’s successful Epcot Center in Florida in what is the present-day Disneyland main parking lot. The entertainment giant would also construct a lake and three theme hotels in the surrounding areas. All would be linked to the park by monorail.

At the same time, Disney has entered negotiations for a $3-billion Port Disney resort near downtown Long Beach. Disney is negotiating with both cities to see which will grant it the most favorable concessions.

Last year, Disney released a fiscal impact report that promised to boost Long Beach’s sagging economy with $1.7 billion in economic activity through the year 2010, create 37,000 permanent jobs and provide city revenues of at least $34 million a year.

But Long Beach is being asked to foot a large portion of an estimated $880 million in costs that Disney is demanding, from the donation of public lands for buildings to transportation improvements, according to a city report obtained by the media. And Long Beach citizens have raised questions, too, on the effect that added tourist traffic will have on their quality of life.