By Brooklynn Wong
The completion of the world-class butterfly palladium that Buena Park was promised is looking less and less likely.
The property on Beach Boulevard, in the middle of the city’s entertainment corridor, was touted as a spectacular center for education, entertainment and nature appreciation. However construction has slowed, and at this week’s City Council meeting, Director of Community Development Joel Rosen gave a presentation that revealed that the project has run into some difficulties and may not ever come to fruition.
Ground was broken on this project in March of 2016. It was slated for completion in October of 2018.
That deadline obviously was not met, and the developer asked for a 13 month extension.
The city denied that request, and gave them an extension of only 30 more days.
This topic was given to the Planning Commission for discussion at a November meeting, and they felt that the City Council ought to discuss and vote on it.
The recommended action was to deny the extension and direct the City Attorney to issue a Notice of Default to the Developer.
The Council all expressed disappointment that this promising and exciting project has fizzled out this way, and no one spoke up in favor of granting a long extension, instead citing holding developers accountable and the city’s financial wellbeing as more important.
The project is estimated to be just 12-15% complete at this point.
A representative from the applicant was given a chance to speak. He called this an ambitious and “major project,” that would be the largest butterfly exhibit in the world should it be completed.
Millions of dollars have already been put forth into the project, towards things like a glass atrium which is being constructed in Europe, an aquarium, a gift shop, a restaurant and a theater.
When Councilmember Connor Traut came right out and asked the obvious question, of whether the developer had the funding in place to complete the project, the representative said they do not.
Traut brought up that he had seen someone with the development asking for donations towards the project via Twitter.
Mayor Pro Tem Fred Smith expressed frustration with the developer, saying, “Every time they’ve made a promise it’s been broken…I have no faith whatsoever and I don’t want to do this to our city.”
And Mayor Art Brown said, “You have 30 days to cure the problem.”
The Council voted unanimously to deny the 13 month extension.
It remains to be seen whether the project will see completion, and if not, what will happen at the site.
