$15.5 Million OKd for Anaheim Transportation Center

House-Senate conferees on Monday approved $15.5 million for a proposed $223-million parking structure and transportation center in Anaheim, which also will serve as a parking lot for the Walt Disney Co.’s expanded resort.

The garage, called the Orange County Intermodal Transportation Center, would provide central parking for people using public transit to get to Disneyland, Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Arena and Disney’s proposed Westcot project. It also would provide parking for commuters should the county go ahead with plans for an urban rail route that would run through Anaheim to South Coast Plaza and John Wayne Airport.

The conferees compromised after the Senate on Oct. 6 approved $25 million in first-year funding for the project, nearly double the $13 million approved earlier by the House of Representatives.

“We’re delighted,” Orange County Transportation Authority Chief Executive Officer Stan Oftelie said of Monday’s compromise.

The deal approved Monday is expected to be ratified by the House and Senate in separate votes later this week. But there’s some question about how Orange County’s House delegation will vote, according to James McConnell, OCTA’s lobbyist in Washington.

McConnell said Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) previously voted against the appropriation, while Reps. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside), Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Jay C. Kim (R-Diamond Bar) supported it.

The garage project, which would be partly funded by OCTA, Anaheim and Disney, was attached to a $318-million federal grant application that also provides for the construction of connecting ramps linking car-pool lanes on the Costa Mesa and San Diego freeways.

The proposed transportation center would be part of a seven-story parking garage on Clementine Street between Freedman Way and Katella Avenue. It would be built with $131 million in federal funds, $35 million from the state, $37 million from OCTA and the city of Anaheim, and $20 million from Disney.

The first floor of the structure would be reserved for commuters using a proposed, elevated, intra-county urban rail line, express buses or shuttles to Orange County-Los Angeles-Riverside--San Diego commuter trains, and for park-and-ride spaces for ride sharers.

Some critics have attacked the plan’s use of federal tax dollars to benefit Disney, a private firm. But OCTA’s Oftelie said the public will benefit by getting a transit station as well as all parking revenues from the garage for use on other transportation projects.