City Planners OK Disney Expansion

Before more than 100 supporters and a few detractors, the Walt Disney Co. on Monday won approval from the city’s Planning Commission to build a $1.4-billion theme park development next to Disneyland.

Commissioners voted 6 to 0 for the project, which goes to the City Council next month for final approval. Commissioner Al Peraza was absent.

The development includes a theme park called Disney’s California Adventure, a 750-room hotel and a 200,000-square-foot shopping, dining and entertainment complex called the Disneyland Center.

“We’re obviously very excited and pleased that the Planning Commission has approved the project, and we’re anxious for the next public hearing,” said Paul Pressler, president of Disneyland Resort. “This will reestablish Anaheim and Disneyland as the center of the California dream.”

The new Disney development supersedes the $3-billion resort the company proposed for the same site five years ago but abandoned last year as too ambitious. It is expected to break ground sometime next year and be completed by 2001.

This time around, the company was able to bypass a rigorous review of its new proposal because the city already approved an environmental impact report in 1993 in connection with the original project.

That first environmental report listed seven unavoidable consequences from the expansion project. These included increased traffic congestion; noise and air pollution during construction; worse air quality from the increase in vehicles the project will draw to the area; and the elimination of agricultural land.

The addendum to the report approved by the Planning Commission on Monday analyzed how the two projects differ and how each would affect the environment. It concludes that the new project will not entail “substantial increases” of those problems.

“Essentially, the changes were very minor,” said Robert Messe, chairman of the Planning Commission. “It’s a project that is going to be a great stimulant to the city and to the county.”

During the three-hour hearing, commissioners raised concerns about increased traffic and parking. Disney representatives assured them that the parking would be reviewed every five years and additional spaces would be provided if necessary.

With the City Council chamber filled to capacity, dozens of speakers praised the latest Anaheim-Disney collaboration, a partnership that began with the opening of Disneyland in 1955.

Former Mayor Jack Dutton, who served on the council in the 1960s and ‘70s, was among those who urged approval of the agreement between the city and Disney.

“I’d like to see this thing get going,” Dutton said. “At this point, I have to live to be 91 to see fruition of this, and I’m getting anxious.”

But others were critical of what they consider Disney’s considerable influence and political muscle in Anaheim.

“There was a time when it could be reasonably said that Disney was a friend of the people. In my view, that is no longer true,” said Anaheim resident Hal Rice.

In a prepared speech, Rice contended that Disney “is a shadow government, which stands alongside the civil government, and it rules we the people just as surely as any civil government ever did.”

Before the Planning Commission meeting, dozens of Disney faithful gathered outside City Hall holding signs and milling around.

The group held a one-minute rally with cheers and chants led by Stanley J. Pawlowski, executive vice president of a local bank and co-chairman of Westcot 2000, a group of citizens formed to support the expansion of Disney projects in Anaheim.

“We think it will be tremendous,” Pawlowski said. “If it didn’t happen, the city and the county would be the losers.”

On Sept. 17, when it considers the project, the council also will consider a financing package that would provide the $550 million needed to improve streets, landscaping and utilities for an expanded Anaheim Convention Center and a second Disney theme park.

Anaheim and Disney officials revealed the framework for the financing plan last month but are still working out specifics, city officials said.