Sportstown’s Environmental Report Faces Council Review

Sportstown Anaheim--a major entertainment, retail and sports complex planned for the area surrounding Anaheim Stadium--will face another legal hurdle today when the project’s environmental study is reviewed by the City Council.

The environmental impact report, required by state law for major projects, won the Planning Commission’s approval in May. That decision was appealed to the council by the Anaheim Union High and Anaheim City school districts.

An attorney representing the two districts, John E. Brown of the Riverside-based Best Best & Krieger law firm, maintains that the environmental study is flawed.

Among the deficiencies, he contends, are underestimates of the number of jobs that would be generated by Sportstown and the number of new students who would be attending local schools as a result.

“We believe the project will impact the school districts by increasing their facilities’ costs by many millions of dollars,” Brown wrote in a June 21 letter to the council.

Brown also maintains that Sportstown, as it is currently planned, would leave the districts “with an increasingly problematic ability to house and educate the public school children of your community.”

Among those disputing this contention is Anaheim City Atty. Jack L. White, who has called the environmental study for the 159-acre site “adequate in its current form.”

The city Planning Department, which is recommending approval of the environmental study, points out in a report to the council that Sportstown would not directly generate an influx of students because no housing is proposed for the project.

The council meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.