This was brought up on a couple of the other Michael Jackson threads. Here’s a story I found this morning about it:
What are the chances that his ranch will be opened to the public? How hard would it be to bring the rides and animals back? Howabout getting the zoning changed?
And what sort of approach should they take? Being Michael Jackson, you’ve got to expect some kitchiness, but they can also take some cues from the Biltmore and class it up a bit - put in a winery, open a nice restaurant serving food grown there on the ranch, carve out some hiking trails.
And as someone mentioned on another thread, Neverland Ranch is something like 3000 acres. They can easily control what happens in it’s immediate surroundings. Graceland is 14 acres and pretty much penned in by residential and commercial development. If someone wants to open a tacky souvenir shop down the street, there’s really not much anyone can do to stop them.
I was just talking about this with someone the other day. I think it would be a great idea to re-open Neverland as an amusement park or museum. I understand the people of Santa Barbara are concerned and not interested in this. I can sort of understand why. But, from my understanding (my Map of the Stars!), his place is way off the beaten path. I even entertained the notion that Disney might even be champing at the bit to get into the action. If the investor who bought Neverland sold it to the State of CA, it could be a good revenue source. Added bonus? I don’t think MJ would be averse to this idea.
I wasn’t saying that Neverland will be like the Biltmore. I’m sure it’ll be kitschy as hell. I’m just saying they can learn a few things from the Biltmore in order to take the edge off said kitschiness, to attract people who may not be huge Michael Jackson fans, but wouldn’t mind spending a day at a winery or hiking through an otherwise beautiful ranch.
Well Neverland is huge, it can’t compare to Graceland, which is in an urban environment. And Santa Maria isn’t exactly close to a population center. And while I’m certain it would draw people to make special trips, there’s always the future to consider. For instance, if the child molestation charges were somehow proven, this would pretty much kill it and leave the county with a big white elephant.
Plus who owns it now? The bank? I’m sure Jackson’s family would sue them like crazy to keep them from using any of Jackson’s images commercially unless they got a big share. It wasn’t like with Elvis and it wasn’t so complex
Never, ever, ever in a million years will that happen. It’s difficult enough for a normal person to get a building permit for a regular house in this county. There are large projects for housing tracts that have taken over a decade to get settled around here. You can just forget about it.
Neverland Ranch is in rural Los Olivos which is mid way between Santa Barbara and Santa Maria, about a 40 minute drive from each on a mostly winding mountain two lane road. It’s a very small town and such a project would literally destroy the place. That’s not even touching on the aspect that the zoning would have to be changed.
Anyone in the media who is taking such a proposal seriously is deluded or grossly misinformed.