Theme park opening rules
Facing increased pressure from business owners and mayors in towns with theme parks, California health officials released protocols for operating the parks, giving destinations such as California’s Great America, Disneyland, Universal Studios and Knott’s Berry Farm a path to reopening.
Large parks face more stringent requirements than smaller ones, and Disneyland won’t be able to open for several weeks at earliest.
“There is a path forward. We don’t know when but we know how” the parks will reopen, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of Health and Human Services.
The protocols announced Tuesday allow a large park to reopen once coronavirus transmission in its home county falls enough for the county to reach the yellow tier— the state’s least restrictive designation.
A small park, meanwhile, can welcome guests once its home county reaches the orange tier, the second least restrictive level.
Ghaly laid out some other restrictions as well: All parks must sell tickets in advance to make contact tracing easier, and face coverings will be mandatory except when eating or drinking.
Large theme parks will be limited to 25% capacity.
Small theme parks will be limited to 25% capacity or 500 visitors, whichever is fewer; can accept only visitors who live in the county; and can operate only outdoor attractions.
Local health officials can impose stricter rules than what’s permitted under a county’s state designated tier. “Theme parks will not resume operation,” the Santa Clara County Public Health Department said Tuesday.
That means Great America in Santa Clara will not resume operation. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo is governed by Solano County’s status, and that county is currently in the red tier, the second most restrictive.
The announcement comes four months after theme parks in Florida, including Walt Disney World, reopened with capacity limits, mask and temperature check requirements and the elimination of events that draw people to crowd together such as parades and fireworks shows. The Disneyland parks in Paris, Shanghai and Hong Kong have all reopened as well.
The question of when and how to reopen California’s amusement parks has been fraught. The parks began to publicly pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom in September to provide a path to reopening.
A coalition of unions representing workers at the Disneyland Resort issued a statement Monday asking the governor to include them in the reopening discussions. The unions said they had reached agreements with Disneyland management on safety protocols.
Newsom’s original draft guidelines would have allowed the theme parks to reopen only when their home counties reached the fourth and final tier of the state’s opening plan, according to theme park officials involved in the meetings with the governor.
A county is assigned to one of the four tiers based on the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents and the rate of positive tests it has, as well as an equity benchmark. The lower the case numbers and positive test rate, the fewer restrictions are imposed on schools and businesses. The purple tier is the most restrictive, followed by red and orange; the yellow is the least restrictive.
Los Angeles County, home of Universal Studios Hollywood and Six Flags Magic Mountain, is in the most restrictive tier. Orange County, home of Disneyland, Disney California Adventure Park and Knott’s Berry Farm, is in the secondmost restrictive.
The pressure on Newsom to release guidelines to reopen the theme parks began to build last month.
Newsom was set to announce the protocols Oct. 2, but the state association of attractions and parks balked after seeing a draft. It asked him to delay and work with the parks in what the association’s executive director called a “more earnest manner, listening to park operators’ expertise and collaborating with the industry.”
Also that week, Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger resigned from Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery — an abrupt public confirmation of the growing tensions.
Newsom has since sent a team of people to theme parks open in other states to learn what precautions those parks take to deter the spread of the coronavirus.
Southern California’s theme parks have made efforts to keep revenue flowing during the closures, with Universal Studios Hollywood and the Disneyland Resort reopening their adjacent shopping and dining districts this summer.
Knott’s Berry Farm opened an outdoor dining and retail effort, called Taste of Knott’s, where visitors can eat, drink and buy souvenirs in sections of the park on weekends. Chronicle staff contributed to
this report.