Anaheim Team Fails to Secure More Transit Funds

After a two-day lobbying effort aimed at obtaining more funds for a proposed regional transportation system, Anaheim officials went home with encouragement but no guarantees.

Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter said the officials had hoped to secure $20 million to move the proposed system from the planning to construction stage. Last year, the county was awarded $15 million out of a $151-billion federal transportation bill but needs $85 million over the next six years for subsequent phases.

The regional transportation system, proposed by the county and estimated to cost $9.4 billion, includes a monorail, people mover and super-speed train. Anaheim would be the hub, and most of the funding would come from local revenues, private sources and state coffers, Hunter said.

“But with federal funding now, we can buy the land, start (a car-pool) lane and work on the shuttle down toward the (Anaheim) Convention Center,” Hunter said.

Councilman Irv Pickler said the region’s already-clogged transportation system is facing added stress from the Walt Disney Co.’s plan to start construction on a new theme park at Disneyland next year.

“But even if Disney wasn’t here, we’d need this. That’s why we’re back here,” said Pickler, adding that Anaheim is the “only bottleneck left” along Interstate 5.

Disney tried and failed last year to lobby Congress to support the county’s original funding request for $395 million. Its efforts stirred a controversy about the propriety of a private enterprise lobbying for a public project from which it stands to benefit.

Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) said Disney executives did not participate in the latest pleas for support.