ANAHEIM : Disney Expansion Hearing Wednesday

Supporters and opponents of Disneyland’s proposed expansion will be at a City Council hearing Wednesday that could be one of the last hurdles the plan faces.

The public hearing on the project’s environmental impact report will probably be similar to a hearing before the city’s Planning Commission last April that lasted almost 10 hours and was attended by a crowd of 800.

The commission recommended that the council approve the $3-billion plan, which calls for the addition of a second theme park next to Disneyland, to be called Westcot, and up to six new hotels, a 5,000-seat amphitheater and two of the world’s largest parking structures.

If the council approves the report, Disney and the city would finish details of a “development agreement” outlining each side’s financial responsibilities. Once that is approved, Disney could begin construction, if the project is not challenged in court. Disney has threatened to cancel the project if there is a court challenge.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Inn at the Park, 1855 S. Harbor Blvd.

Proponents say the expansion will create 28,000 jobs in the area and will be a financial windfall for the city and all of Orange County. Proponents outnumbered opponents by at least 3 to 1 at the Planning Commission hearing.

Leaders of the group Westcot 2000, which supports the expansion, were not available for comment Monday. But at April’s hearing they warned the commission not to “let what happened in Long Beach happen here,” referring to Disney’s 1991 decision to abandon a planned ocean theme park because of community opposition and regulatory hassles.

Among opponents expected to be heard from are the Anaheim City School District and the Anaheim Union High School District. They want a $200-million payment from Disney, saying the expansion will cause their enrollment to rise dramatically and they will need to build new schools. Disney has offered the two districts a total of $2.5 million.

Other opponents will probably include homeowners who fear the expansion will lead to increased noise and congestion in their neighborhoods.

Curtis Stricker, president of Anaheim HOME, a group of Disneyland neighbors opposed to the plan, said his group’s presentation to the council will focus on the expansion’s economic viability.

Stricker said city documents show that while the city will have to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few years to improve streets and other infrastructure surrounding the park, revenue from the expansion will not be sufficient to make payments on the debt until 2008.

“I don’t know any good businessman that would defer such debt for 15 years,” Stricker said. “If it is deferred, what will be the (interest costs) on that loan? If not, where is the city going to get the money to make its payments? From the taxpayers? The (Planning Commission) didn’t listen to us. I hope the council will.”