COSTA MESA : Fair Shelves Plan for Off-Track Betting

Citing community concerns, Orange County Fair Board officials Friday postponed plans for an off-track betting parlor but did not rule out the possibility of reintroducing the proposal later.

Costa Mesa City Council members and residents said at a meeting last week that the betting might generate noise and traffic congestion on surrounding streets.

“We don’t want to be bad guys,” Fair Board President Tom W. Thomson said after the decision.

Thompson would not comment on whether the board might reintroduce the proposal for an off-track facility, but he did not rule it out.

The proposed facility, which was being considered for a spot on the east side of the fairgrounds, was expected to draw an average of 3,000 people and gross $600,000 daily. It sparked a heated debate at the April 2 meeting of the Costa Mesa council, which opposed it 3 to 2.

Councilman Ed Glasgow said fair officials tried to push through the proposal “arbitrarily and capriciously, without knowing what impact it’s going to have.”

The council has no legal power to prohibit a betting parlor, but fair officials said they had sought council approval of the project in hopes of avoiding a communitywide battle.

With the decision to postpone the matter, the fair board said Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) would withdraw a bill he sponsored to legalize off-track betting in Orange County. The legislation, introduced at the board’s request, was scheduled to be voted upon by the Assembly’s Governmental Affairs Committee on April 18.

In a prepared statement, Ferguson did not rule out the possibility of reintroducing the bill legalizing off-track betting in Orange County next year. The bill would have to go to the full Assembly by April 27 to be passed into law this year.