OTHER NEWS - Aug. 23, 1996

Lego Gives Go-Ahead for Theme Park in San Diego County: The Danish toy maker approved plans to begin building its first U.S.-based Legoland amusement park in Carlsbad, Calif. The park, which will cost $138 million, will open in 1999 and host a projected 1.8 million visitors a year. Lego Systems said it hopes its brand of mild thrills will attract families with children who are too young for other amusement parks. The 40-acre park proposal sparked an outcry among local residents who feared that tourism would ruin adjoining neighborhoods, but Carlsbad voters approved the project in a 1994 ballot initiative. The park’s structures--Lilliputian copies of famous buildings and sites--are to be made of more than 40 million Lego plastic, snap-together bricks. Lego will hire a staff of 700 to operate the park. Lego operates two European sites, one in Billund, Denmark, and the other in Windsor, England.