ANAHEIM : City Releases Details of Tourist Area Revitalization

City officials on Wednesday released a detailed schedule and financial plan for the Anaheim Resort project, a $172-million revitalization of the area around Disneyland.

The plan to eliminate urban blight in the city’s major tourist area was approved in concept by the City Council last fall and is viewed as critical to keeping Anaheim a magnet for tourist and convention business.

The city hopes to complete most of its planned improvements over a five-year period. These include landscaping, buried utility lines, widened streets and more attractive signs for businesses.

The timeline released Wednesday involves more than 89 projects, which officials said had to be carefully scheduled so that certain projects would tie in together, coincide with available funding and have a minimal impact on tourism.

Improvements will be funded by increasing the hotel bed tax and using Measure M, state, federal and fee revenue. The city also expects to borrow millions of dollars by issuing revenue bonds to maintain a positive cash flow throughout the construction period.

Anaheim expects to spent $11.6 million on the project before July. Anticipated expenditures for following years are $22.2 million in 1996, $36 million in 1997, $35.1 million in 1998, $25.9 million in 1999, $24.9 million in 2000 and $18.7 million in 2001, according to city documents.

The improvements were once considered vital to Walt Disney Co.’s plans to build a $3-billion resort next to Disneyland. Those plans have since been shelved in favor of a smaller project or one that will be built incrementally.