Impact Report on Disney’s Glendale Project Examined

Walt Disney Co.’s proposal for a “creative campus” on the 125-acre site once home to the Grand Central Air Terminal will add nearly 8,000 employees to the 5,000 already working there over the next 20 years, a draft environmental review released Thursday said.

The 2,000-plus-page report, prepared for the Glendale Redevelopment Agency, says the influx of 7,844 new workers and the planned renovation of the site near the junction of the Golden State and Ventura freeways will have “unavoidable significant impact” on noise, air quality and traffic flow in the area.

The four-volume review, prepared by PRC Services Corp. of Santa Monica, shows employment at the site would increase by nearly 3,000 over earlier estimates. Last March, Disney officials projected about 5,000 new jobs once the project was completed.

In an interview Thursday, Disney executives downplayed the potential effects of the project, which would be addressed through increased on-site parking, phased construction, improvements to freeway exits and local intersections as well as height restrictions on buildings near residences.

“This is one of the most comprehensive [environmental impact reports] that has ever been done in Glendale and looks at an area [of] 15 square miles in three different cities, including Burbank, Glendale and Los Angeles,” said Doug Moreland, a senior vice president for Walt Disney Imagineering. “It creates comprehensive mitigation programs that deal with any impacts in the future.”

Since going public with the details of the proposed campus last September, Disney officials have sought to paint a picture of a low-key development consisting of four distinctive areas blending green spaces and four- to six-story buildings. Still, some residents say they will be reading the fine print.

“The more square footage you put in, the greater the impact on noise, traffic, air pollution,” said Richard Ramirez, president of the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council, an umbrella group representing 23 Glendale homeowners associations. “And the more square footage, the more impact on everything else that’s mentioned in the report.”

Plans call for 3.6 million square feet of offices, sound stages and studio production facilities. Disney currently owns 2.4 million square feet at the site, which is bordered by Western Avenue, Flower Street, Air Way and the Golden State Freeway.

Disney plans to turn the original Grand Central passenger terminal and the now-vacant control tower into office space. The anchor of the site would be Walt Disney Imagineering, the research and development arm of the company that designs theme park rides and other attractions.

According to documents filed with the city last year, zoning allows Disney to construct office towers up to 10 stories.

But Moreland said Disney officials could not predict how many buildings or high-rises would be constructed, citing the 20-year period over which the property would take shape.

The creative campus, which borders the DreamWorks SKG animation campus, is part of the 750-acre San Fernando Redevelopment Corridor, designed in 1992 to attract media, technology and entertainment companies to the city.

Today, 3,000 Disney employees are scattered in office buildings at what is known as the Grand Central Business Park, which was developed in the early 1960s on the airport site. About 2,000 more work in leased buildings on the site.

Glendale Redevelopment Director Jeanne N. Armstrong declined immediate comment on the draft document, saying it was a starting point to examine the impacts and mitigations in advance of months of public comment, meetings and city reviews before the Glendale City Council considers the project.

“This is the release of an important document that needs to be reviewed by the public,” Armstrong said. “In the next few months we will know if the impacts of this project can been minimized.’

Release of the draft EIR allows 45 days for public comment before it goes before the Glendale Redevelopment Agency and on to the City Council, probably in the fall, she said.

The project could generate between $8 million and $10 million for local schools, depending on the assessed value of new buildings, city officials said. Armstrong said 20% of newly generated property-tax revenue would go toward affordable housing. Another 25% would be reinvested to fund local infrastructure improvements.

City Councilman Sheldon Baker said he had not seen the draft report but the potential financial benefits hold great promise for Glendale.

“Any time you do something this large, it has impacts,” Baker said. “But it could be one of the more significant projects in the history of this city.

“It has the potential of being beneficial for neighborhoods, not just city government,” Baker added. “It will create significant opportunities for business--and with it more jobs.”

Disney bought the property in 1997, although it has leased space at the park since the early 1960s.

The Grand Central facility was home to the first major airport in the Los Angeles area and was used by aviation luminaries including Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan.

During World War II, the Glendale airfield served as home base for Lockheed’s P-38 Lightning fighter planes and became a major center for the repair and overhaul of aircraft.

With the advent of jets, the facility became outdated and was transformed into an industrial park in the late 1950s.

The report recommends major improvements at the San Fernando Road ramps at the Ventura Freeway and at the Western Avenue ramps at the Golden State Freeway.

They include relocating the northbound Golden State Freeway on- and off-ramps to end at Flower Street about a block south of Western Avenue and connecting the Ventura Freeway’s San Fernando Road interchange with an extension of Flower Street into the redevelopment area.

The report also suggests improvements at 19 nearby intersections, ranging from adding left-turn lanes and traffic lights to widening and restriping streets.

For a project of this size, Glendale law requires that 14,922 off-street parking spaces be provided, more than the 12,800 spaces the report estimates will be needed when the proposed Disney campus is fully built.

Currently the site has about 6,412 parking spaces, including about 5,463 in off-street surface lots and about 949 on-street spaces, the report says.

However, most of those on-street spaces could be eliminated along Flower Street, Grand Central Avenue, Air Way, Circle Seven Drive and Grandview Avenue, it says.

Those streets are in nonresidential areas, and the loss of those on-street spaces won’t affect the overall parking plan, the report says.

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The draft environmental impact report on the Disney “Creative Campus” is available at any of the six Glendale public libraries. It also can be accessed via the city’s official Web site at https://www.ci.glendale.ca.us. Follow the link on that page to the Disney EIR. Copies are also available for purchase at the Glendale Redevelopment Agency at 633 E. Broadway, Room 201.