Disney Seeks U.S. Highway Funds for Expansion : Transportation: Taxpayer aid asked for special freeway exits, car pool lanes and parking garages to serve area around theme park.

In need of cash to help finance part of their massive Anaheim expansion plans, Disneyland officials are asking the nation’s taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to help them out.

The Disney Development Co. has persuaded five key California Democrats to urge the House of Representatives to allocate $395 million in federal highway funds for transportation improvements needed for the expansion.

Although a precise breakdown of the spending plan was unavailable, the money would be used for special exits from the Santa Ana Freeway leading directly to a new parking garage complex, for new car pool lanes on the Santa Ana Freeway between the Orange and Riverside freeways and for the parking garage complex itself.

The freeway exits alone are estimated at $80 million. The garages would serve not only Disneyland, but also the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Stadium and other Civic Center businesses.

Also included in the transportation plans are moving sidewalks and an elevated people-mover.

The transportation plans are part of Disney’s recently unveiled proposal to expand its Anaheim theme park by adding new hotels and an attraction to be named Westcot--an updated, West Coast version of Epcot Center at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Disney Vice President Alan Epstein said the firm felt justified in seeking taxpayer aid because the transportation improvements “. . . will have a broad benefit throughout the recreation area of Anaheim, throughout north Orange County and throughout the whole I-5 corridor.” Ultimately, Disney officials said, an expanded Disneyland would have statewide financial benefits.

Disney officials had asked Caltrans to pay for some of the improvements, such as the off-ramps, but were turned down, according to a source familiar with the project.

Despite strong support from the five House Democrats, all of whom have received Disney contributions, the plan has raised concern among some who object to the public being asked to pay for a project that ultimately will primarily benefit a single private enterprise.

Among them is Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who represents the district that includes Disneyland.

Dornan, openly miffed because Disney did not consult him on the amount of money it was seeking for the transportation plan, has drafted a separate, similar request at the behest of the City of Anaheim. It asks for a lesser amount--$175 million--that would benefit businesses throughout the Anaheim Civic Center area, in addition to Disneyland.

“Disney, as much as I love them, is a commercial enterprise,” the congressman said.

Disney officials said they sought the $395 million, hoping the government would pick up a bigger share of the transportation price tag.

The five Democrats who are pushing the Disneyland project--Reps. Mel Levine of Santa Monica, Howard Berman and Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, Don Edwards of San Jose and Vic Fazio of West Sacramento--all have received contributions from the Disney Political Action Committee during the last three years, according to Federal Election Commission records. The PAC contributed $7,000 to Levine, $2,000 each to Berman, Fazio and Waxman, and $500 to Edwards.

Bill Andresen, Levine’s administrative assistant in Washington, said the congressman was first approached about the special funding request by Richard Bates, Disney’s Washington lobbyist and the former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“He came to us,” Andresen said. “We responded because it looks like a good project.” Andresen said Levine also wrote letters on behalf of a tunnel project near Los Angeles International Airport and the L.A. Metro Rail subway.

In their letter to Rep. Robert A. Roe (D-N.J.), chairman of the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation, the five Democrats said they were seeking the $395 million because “it will not only bring great economic growth to California but will be a state of the art transportation model that encourages intermodality, efficiency and environmental soundness.”

In return for spending the $395 million in federal funds, the congressmen said, “$2.4 billion in new economic activity would be facilitated.”

The five Democrats are seeking to tack the authorization for the Disney project onto a new, five-year transportation bill that is making its way through Congress. The House version of the bill is scheduled to be introduced next week. By authorizing such special expenditures--known as “demonstration projects,” Congress in effect circumvents the state planning process that sets priorities for the use of federal transportation aid.

The device is commonly used in Congress to provide funds for projects that might not otherwise be built. A source on the public works committee, which has jurisdiction over the new transportation bill, said congressmen already have forwarded to the panel more than 200 such special requests, totaling about $23 billion.

Carl B. Williams, an assistant director of the California Department of Transportation, suggested that Disneyland ought to pay at least part of the cost.

Stewart reported from Washington and Perlman reported from Orange County.