Garden Grove Hopes Adding Water Will Improve Harbor

Finally, somebody wants to give Harbor Boulevard a face-lift, a much-needed touch of splendor as one of the county’s primary thoroughfares makes its way to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

When my wife and I took our first trip to Disneyland as newcomers here 18 years ago, the ride up Harbor was a surprising disappointment. Heading to the Magic Kingdom, we expected to see a touch of majesty along the way.

Instead, we found Harbor a tawdry mix of cheap motels, fast-food joints, empty storefronts and low-rent businesses. With a few exceptions, not much has changed about Harbor the past two decades.

Until now.

Garden Grove, a city with a checkered past of spotty development, approved a $400-million plan at midnight Tuesday that could upgrade a 53-acre, quarter-mile section of Harbor.

Whether that’s all private funding depends on how you look at the figures. But from where I sat at Tuesday’s five-hour Garden Grove City Council meeting, it seemed a worthy gamble no matter how you sliced the money pie.

The result would be Riverwalk. Or Music City Riverwalk. The developers are still tinkering with details such as a final name for the multi-hotel/entertainment complex.

It’s designed as a splendid supplement to a visitor’s trip to Disneyland in neighboring Anaheim a few blocks to the north. The project’s core element would be a 40-foot-wide canal that would encircle many of its restaurants, shops and entertainment venues.

Gondola rides, riverside restaurant patios, strolling minstrels along its banks. The developer, OHI Ltd., is trying to sell leisure life in the heart of bustling urban Orange County.

Theme sections would abound, such as “Country & Western Street Scene,” “Latin Street Scene,” “ ‘50s-’60s Street Scene.” Live theatrical productions are promised, as well as some places for good jazz.

The million-square-foot entertainment complex is shaped like a nine-iron along’s Harbor’s west side. It would begin just a block north of Garden Grove Boulevard. One narrow stretch along Harbor would run to just short of Chapman Avenue.

Projections are it would draw 8.8 million visitors annually. That should pop a minimum of $2 million per year into the city’s coffers and provide 5,000 full- and part-time jobs.

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But beyond that, the staff of the city’s Redevelopment Agency reports, it will replace a section of Harbor that “negatively impacts economic development within the community.” City Councilman Mark Leyes aptly suggested that Riverwalk would serve as a badly needed catalyst to revitalize other sections of Harbor Boulevard.

Scrapping the Riverwalk idea so we could save the Burger King on that site didn’t seem much of an argument Tuesday night.

Not that there weren’t some legitimate neighborhood complaints. Increased traffic, sewer impact, construction noise, street parking, all of those are concerns that need to be addressed as this project advances.

But some people Tuesday night seemed to complain just to complain.

One woman meekly began her five-minute speech by asking everyone to bear with her because she’d never spoken in public before. Then she tore into the council in gutter language, with even a swipe--with nothing to support it--that its members must be lining their own pockets.

Many of the complaints had to do with financing of the project. That’s partly because a local newspaper had said the council was giving the Riverwalk developers $42.3 million in city funds just for coming aboard.

Said one angry resident: “You are paying someone to come build in the city, and that’s just wrong.”

You would almost have to set aside common sense to see it that way. What the council is really doing is giving the developer a set of tax rebates that could amount to that much--spread over 29 years. Without it, there would be no project.

For example, the developer gets a fat 36.5% of the sales tax revenue generated for the first 29 years. So the city only gets 63.5%. But that means it’s getting two-thirds of something, as opposed to getting 100% of nothing.

Not that I like everything about Riverwalk. The developer is talking about an entry fee just to get in the place. If I were on the City Council, I’d nix that in a hurry. That smacks of greed. Riverwalk’s planning books also show a 20-screen movie complex, and you have to wonder just how many more of these the market can take.

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The main eyebrow-raiser for me is that the developers are going to put on great theatrical productions such as “Les Miserables” and “My Fair Lady”--but in shortened versions. That’s like showing “Gone With the Wind” and having Rhett Butler walk out after saying, “Frankly, my dear.” And what would “My Fair Lady” be without the scene at Ascot?

Still, if I don’t have to pay that offensive entry fee, I can see myself a frequent visitor to Riverwalk. Some of the opposing residents said they will never set foot in the place. But that’s because they’re angry. They’ll come around once they see it’s a vast improvement over what’s there now.

Not that moving out the current occupants of that area is going to be a pleasant task.

“We care about those businesses that will have to move, and we’re going to do our best to keep them in Garden Grove,” City Manager George Tindall said. Mile High Comics, for example, has already had to move twice because of city improvement projects.

Of course, it may turn out nobody moves. There’s an asterisk to all this grand planning:

Now that the developer has ironed out its agreement with the city, it has to come up with the financing. OHI has until the end of the year to put up $50 million in start-up costs or the whole deal is off.

If it falls through, then Burger King remains the star attraction of its block. And Garden Grove--and the rest of us--are the losers.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com