Disney Plan Over Main Hurdle : Resort: Anaheim City Council unanimously approves $3-billion project’s environmental impact report.
The City Council on Tuesday erased the most significant regulatory obstacle to the proposed $3-billion Disneyland Resort by unanimously approving its environmental impact report--a vote that will probably change the face of Anaheim and Southern California tourism.
Still to be resolved is how much financing public agencies will provide for the project and whether opponents will sue to challenge the city’s environmental analysis of the sprawling development. The Walt Disney Co. has asked city, state and federal authorities to pay about $800 million of the development costs for its ambitious plan to build a second theme park and resort next to Disneyland.
“This is the first major milestone and there are bigger milestones ahead, but hopefully we’ll be breaking ground on this project within the next year,” Mayor Tom Daly said. “This project is important to Anaheim’s economy, Orange County’s economy and the state economy.”
The City Council must still give final approval to the zoning and planning ordinances covering the project. The council voted unanimously Tuesday to introduce those measures, and a vote on them is scheduled next week.
The massive development would transform Disney’s enterprise here into a destination resort for millions of tourists who would eat, sleep, shop and play at Disneyland and its new amusement park, whose theme would be the wonders of the world.
Disney officials say the project would overhaul the city’s ailing public infrastructure and revitalize a blighted urban environment. It is also expected to create tens of thousands of jobs and annually generate about $2.4 billion in economic activity statewide after completion in 1998.
The council vote came with little discussion after a 90-minute closed session. Disney and city officials applauded the acceptance of the environmental report, which assesses the impact the park would have on surrounding neighborhoods. The report took more than two years to compile, refine and present to the public.
The occasion recalled the historic vote that gave Walt Disney permission four decades ago to build Disneyland.
“I get the feeling people believe this is a good project,” said a smiling Disneyland President Jack Lindquist. “In my heart of hearts I always believed this was going to be a go.”
But people who contend that the project will create too much traffic and pollution in the area were not pleased.
“Our representatives have chosen to sell us down the river,” said Steve White, president of a homeowners’ group which opposes the expansion. “Our neighborhoods have been sold out to benefit the Disney corporation and we are upset about that.”
Though the homeowners’ group has said it cannot afford to sue, other property owners said Tuesday that they will go to court.
During earlier public discussions of the project, Disney officials have said they are concerned that opposition in the form of protracted lawsuits could kill the project.
City officials said Tuesday that they, too, are concerned about the costs of litigation. The city and Disney are negotiating on who would pay in the event the city is successfully sued.
Councilman Fred Hunter said liability is an issue that needs to be worked out before the council votes on the zoning and planning ordinances next Tuesday.
“Our most important job is protecting the taxpayers of the city of Anaheim,” he said.
Kenneth P. Wong, senior vice president with Disney Development Co., called it “a very, very important issue.”
The haggling about who would pay such expenses is reminiscent of the negotiations over the project’s funding.
Disney officials say they are constantly reviewing the resort’s “economic feasibility” before committing to construction. The company is waiting to see how much financing public agencies will provide to upgrade public works and build the two massive parking structures that would serve the resort.
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As presented to the council Tuesday, the proposed expansion contains an international-themed park called Westcot, a 5,000-seat, open-air amphitheater, a shopping district, hotels in and outside the park and two of the nation’s largest parking garages. It would cover more than 490 acres--the existing park is 85 acres. The new theme park would be built on the Disneyland parking lot, with other components of the resort surrounding it.
The expansion, together with Disneyland and its existing hotel, would be called the Disneyland Resort.
Disney chose Anaheim for its expansion plans for Southern California in December, 1991, after a cut-throat competition with the city of Long Beach. Disney abandoned a proposed ocean theme park and resort in Long Beach because of community opposition and the additional regulatory hurdles accompanying a project in a coastal zone.
During the battle, Anaheim officials never wavered in their support for the company that has long called the city its home.
Since the winter of 1991, Disney and Anaheim officials have met privately on dozens of occasions to work on the project’s designs and move it from fantasy to reality. Publicly, they repeatedly extolled the resort’s potential economic and social benefits.
City officials have tried to persuade the residents that the city needs the project if it is to continue relying on tourism for its financial lifeblood. City economists predict that the expansion will generate $27 million in additional taxes for Anaheim in 1998, when it opens. When the theme park and surrounding areas are fully developed, that revenue figure rises to $36 million a year.
The project is also expected to create as many as 28,000 jobs in Southern California. Most of those positions, however, are part-time, low-wage jobs.
Without the project, city officials argue, the area around Disneyland will develop at a much slower and less profitable pace. And they fear that Anaheim’s position as a convention center and family-oriented tourist destination may worsen. Other cities, particularly Las Vegas and Long Beach, are trying to move more vigorously into the convention market, officials say.
From the outset of the environmental review process, Disney consulted with many of the public agencies that haad oversight or interest in the project. Through these efforts, Disney successfully stemmed opposition from such powerful groups as the Southern California Assn. of Governments, Orange County Transportation Authority, the Air Quality Management District and Caltrans.
The final environmental review document included more than 160 design features to mitigate environmental problems. The report was mandated by state law. Although it is the city’s document, Disney paid the estimated $10-million price tag for the review.
Nevertheless, the report adopted Tuesday finds that there will be seven unavoidable short- and long-term impacts from the project. These include increased traffic congestion and noise and air pollution during construction, worse air quality, elimination of agricultural land and incompatible land use, according to the report, which was released last November.
Although many community residents, neighboring cities and business owners have rallied behind the project, praising its potential benefits, there has been a small but vocal group of people who oppose the Disneyland Resort plan.
The strongest voices have come from the city of Garden Grove, two of Anaheim’s school districts and residential and business property owners near Disneyland.
All of the opponents complain that the the city did not fully address the project’s adverse impacts.
Garden Grove officials say traffic and housing impacts were not adequately studied; the school districts contend that the project will bring more students to the schools and cost the districts millions of dollars more than estimated by the city, and property owners said they are concerned about noise and air pollution and traffic, especially during construction.
The opponents say they believe that their concerns were largely ignored over the course of several public hearings on the environmental and planning documents. During those meetings far more people, groups, agencies and businesses spoke in favor than in opposition.
To accommodate the critics, Disney and the city made several small changes to the project, including redesigning the two parking garages.
A Giant Step for DISNEYLAND RESORT
KEY PAYERS: Disney hopes government will pick up $800 million of costs. A17
SUITS FEARED: Disney and Anaheim officials will be watching courthouse. A17
KEY PLAYERS: The work of a panel of experts paid off for Orange County. A17
WHAT’S UP: Visitors will see the world. A16
