Inglewood Sizes Up Hollywood Park Plan

Inglewood officials and residents have begun outlining what they expect in exchange for supporting Hollywood Park’s proposed $100-million expansion, an ambitious project that envisions a 16,000-seat music theater as well as a card club that must be approved by city voters.

Councilman Anthony Scardenzan received from park representatives’ assurances at a council meeting this week that the card club would be operated by the same people who operate the Hollywood Park racetrack.

The council meeting was the first opportunity residents had to hear details of the expansion plans that were unveiled with great fanfare last week.

Issues being raised about the project, billed as a jobs bonanza in the wake of the riots, range from how many jobs will go to Inglewood residents to concerns over increased crime and whether the overall plan hinges on the card club vote.

“If the voters of Inglewood should in their wisdom vote this card club down,” said Leroy Fisher, a resident opposed to the card club, “does Hollywood Park intend to go forward with the balance of their project?”

According to project promoters, construction of the music center is to begin in the coming months, regardless of whether the card club wins approval.

“It’s absolutely a done deal,” concert promoter Robert Geddes said this week.

Geddes, co-owner of Avalon Attractions and the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, is a partner with the park in building the music center, which is expected to cost $50 million and should be completed 18 months after construction starts.

“We are expecting to go into the ground toward the end of ’92 or the first quarter of ‘93,” G. Michael Finnigan, executive officer and chief financial officer at the park, said.

Geddes said the music center, which has been dubbed a “music dome” because of its shape, will attract “everything from . . . Phil Collins to . . . George Michael, Madonna, Hammer, Natalie Cole and Janet Jackson.”

Most residents at the meeting voiced tentative support for the expansion, including the card club. However, one civic activist, Brenda Conyers, said she opposes the card club and reminded the council that twice before, in 1976 and 1978, voters turned down card club proposals.

“What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?” Conyers asked.

Conyers and Michael Triggs, a former school board member, said they were forming a group called Residents Against Gambling Expansion to fight the card club measure if the council votes to put it on the ballot, as it is expected to do.

The expansion plan also calls for the park to donate land to the city for a new police headquarters. That donation also is not believed to be dependent on the card club vote, Assistant City Manager Norman Y. Cravens said. He said the city would pay construction costs for the police building.

The final portion of the expansion plan, a golf academy, is under construction and is expected to open in October, Finnigan said. The only part of the plan dependent on the voters, he said, is renovation of the Cary Grant Pavilion, which is to house the card club, along with restaurants and retail shops.

In a request that was on the council agenda, Hollywood Park owner R.D. Hubbard asked that the council put the card club measure on the November ballot. The council would have to do that by Aug. 2 for a November vote.

The expansion plans and Hubbard’s request were referred to the city manager and his staff for study. Councilman Daniel Tabor said he expects the council to form a committee that would include citizen representatives to make a recommendation to the council.

Council members also told Finnigan they expect a large number of local residents to be chosen to fill the projected 3,000 jobs that will be created by the park expansion. They also want residents to have the opportunity to own and operate the new shops that are to be built in the first floor of the Cary Grant Pavilion.