Anaheim Works to Build a Downtown for All O.C.

That's Anaheim's grand vision for its "Platinum Triangle," an area the city touts as Orange County's future downtown.

The concept got a boost last week with news that the National Football League is considering the site for a new stadium, which would host the Los Angeles region's first pro football team in nearly a decade. But a blueprint for the Platinum Triangle was completed long before NFL officials came knocking -- and is one of the reasons for their interest, city officials say.

The 807-acre site, a triangle wedged between the Santa Ana Freeway and the Santa Ana River just east of Disneyland, is a central element of Anaheim's new general plan, approved earlier this year. Four developers so far have proposed building portions of the project, city officials say.

The city envisions an urban center in a sea of suburban sprawl -- a thriving commercial hub with after-hours entertainment and a built-in customer base of thousands living in the 9,175 condominiums and apartments zoned for the area.

The concept is part of a broader development trend that has been sweeping Southern California. From Pasadena to Los Angeles to Long Beach and Irvine, planners and developers have struggled to bring vitality to drab downtowns and commercial districts by adding housing and entertainment venues.

The Platinum Triangle already houses Angel Stadium, the Arrowhead Pond and the Grove of Anaheim, a concert and meeting hall. Otherwise it is a humdrum collection of parking lots, office buildings, factories and restaurants. Anaheim officials are betting on the draw of the existing venues to help create crowds and demand for other entertainment.

The formula has proved successful in such cities as San Francisco and San Diego, where new ballparks -- SBC Park and Petco Park, respectively -- have helped reinvigorate the areas around them.

"We get the luxury of doing it the other away around," said Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. "We don't need to clear urban areas to build a stadium; we get to build the urban around an existing stadium."

The proposed football facility would be built somewhere on a vast parking lot northwest of Angel Stadium. Already approved is an environmental report for a football stadium, prepared in 1996 as part of a plan to link the area's major sports venues. The private venture, called Sportstown, failed because the developer could not raise the money to build it.