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• May 9, 2008 12:05 pm US/Pacific
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  49ers' Stadium May Not Need OK From Great America

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49ers' Stadium May Not Need OK From Great America

SANTA CLARA (CBS 5 / KCBS) ― The city of Santa Clara is trying to send a strong message to the owners of a local theme park.

The city has revealed that it has a backup plan for parking, and is expressing to Paramount's Great America that, essentially, it doesn't need its permission to build a football stadium.

In a letter to the owners of Great America, Santa Clara's City Manager said the city has the right to develop the theme park's parking lot if they replace any lost spaces. That could mean building a new parking structure on Great America's main lot, which could add to the cost of the stadium.

A Santa Clara spokeswoman said Friday that city officials value Great America highly as a tenant and never intended an April letter to the amusement park's owners to be seen as an ultimatum.

"... the city would certainly prefer that the issues are resolved by agreement of all concerned. Nevertheless, if agreement cannot be reached in the relatively near future on the other options so as to allow the term sheet and election to go forward, the city will have to seriously consider this last option as the means of resolving the theme park-stadium relationship," Santa Clara City Manager Jennifer Sparacino  wrote.

Friday, city spokeswoman Carol McCarthy said the public should not read too much into the letter. Great America has always been, and continues to be, a valued tenant of the city, she said.

"It's much ado about nothing," McCarthy said. "Our goal has always been to work cooperatively with our tenant."

Larry Stone, Santa Clara County Assessor and Silicon Valley sports boosters said Cedar Fair, the owner of the theme park, could still sue the city over this issue.

"While they may not be successful in litigation, they could upset the time frame fairly significantly, which obviously increases the cost significantly."

There are no lawsuits pending at the moment, but Cedar Faire has reportedly said they hope the city does not decide to move forward without its involvement and consent.

City officials want to present the City Council with a "term sheet" that would provide the financial, legal and logistic details of the proposed stadium project in June or possibly July and then place it on the November ballot for city voters to approve.

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