Last night, the Carlsbad City Council unanimous voted to allow Legoland to “change a planning document that guides development of the region” giving the company permission to proceed with plans to build a 250-room hotel, with a 14,383-square-foot restaurant, and a 11,051-square-foot retail space.
For good measure Councilman Mark Packer even tossed in the idea of changing the name of Cannon Road in a way that would “better publicize” the park, according to a story in the North County Times.
The park’s recently appointed general manager, Peter Ronchetti, told the council that he has no doubt the place will eventually be a success. “We are highly confident that a Lego hotel will be very popular among our visitors,” he said. . . Plans call for the hotel to have themed rooms that celebrate specific park rides and attractions, so visitors will be “immersed in Legoland around the clock,” Ronchetti said.
Right. It’s like Legoland visitors won’t ever have to leave the property. Interestingly, back in the mid 90s when Legoland was courting the City of Carlsbad the company promoted the idea that the park would bring money to Carlsbadistan via park visitors. These visitors, they said, would need to eat somewhere, sleep somewhere, and shop somewhere and that somewhere would be Carlsbad. Now, it appears that Merlin Entertainment, the park’s owners, would rather keep all those visitor dollars to themselves with their own hotel, shops, and restaurants.
And, come to think of it, if changing Cannon Road’s name to Legoland Drive is good, wouldn’t changing the city of Carlsbad’s name to Legoland, California be great? The logos are already done. . .
[Link: North County Times]
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Remember when the City Council kissed up to the developers of Aviara and changed the name of part of Poinsettia Lane to Aviara Parkway? Then it’s no surprise they’re considering doing that with Legoland too.
But at least Legoland has been a good neighbor and donated a lot of money to the Carlsbad schools through the Carlsbad Educational Foundation. Can’t say the same for the developers…..even before most of them went bankrupt!