Key Players in the Disney Expansion : Stan Oftelie

Faced with an $800-million price tag for traffic improvements and other public works for Disney’s new resort, Anaheim and Disney turned in part to Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

OCTA’s Board of Directors told Oftelie to find a way to give a boost to the Disneyland Resort, but it was Oftelie who came up with the plan that could win federal funding for one of Disney’s parking structures.

At a meeting in March with his top aides, Oftelie realized that the proposed Disney garage was next to a long-planned but never funded park-and-ride facility. By transforming part of the Disney garage into a so-called transit terminal with express bus service, rail connections and park-and-ride space, OCTA would get parking revenue to help fund transit and not build the previously planned park-and-ride lot. Oftelie was able to serve both tourist industry and mass transit/commuter needs. The policy argument for the funding fell into place.

Oftelie was also instrumental in crafting agreements between Anaheim and Caltrans for Santa Ana Freeway off-ramps at West Street and Freedman Way to serve the new resort.

Such deals are vintage Oftelie. He directs a half-billion-dollar agency charged with minimizing the county’s traffic problems.