Council Rejects Plan to Build Game Arcade

A group denied permission to build an amusement arcade at Laguna Hills Plaza Shopping Center said it will pursue its plans, but elsewhere in the county.

“I don’t think the community understood what this arcade is about,” said Tom Portale, a co-owner of West Coast Amusements in Huntington Beach. “I think we were turned down because [of] negative experiences in other cities.”

The City Council, which rejected the request Tuesday night, raised concerns that the project would cause overcrowding in the shopping center parking lot, which is often at capacity already.

Council members also said they feared that the arcade would be incompatible with other businesses in the retail complex and the residential neighborhood surrounding the site.

West Coast Amusements proposed a 6,000-square-foot arcade offering 170 video and other games. About 50 of the games would have been free after paying a $1.95 admission charge, while the rest would have cost one or two nickels to play.

The project was strongly opposed by nearby residents, who said it would attract hoards of youngsters who would loiter outside the arcade, litter the area with trash and perhaps commit acts of vandalism.

“I don’t want them in my neighborhood,” said Kiki Anastopoulos, who lives near the shopping center.

The arcade drew a mixed response, however, from merchants in the retail complex.

John Rasmussen, manager of Chick’s Sporting Goods, said there is already a problem with shoplifting and vandalism in the center that would get worse if the arcade were to open.

Arcades “do attract a different element of people and they do tend to hang out,” he said.

But a representative of the Pic ‘N’ Save discount store, adjacent to where the arcade would have been, said the company surveyed property managers in the San Diego area where similar arcades operate and had received no complaints.

“We didn’t have any negative comments whatsoever,” company representative Richard Wadley said. “We actually had positive comments.”