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PHOENIX -- State senators agreed Wednesday to alter some laws to pave the way for what developers promise will be a rock and roll theme park in Eloy.

The preliminary approval came after supporters of the park beat back several amendments that sponsors said would ensure that the special powers the legislation would give park organizers would not be abused. Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, who is shepherding the measure through the process, said those restrictions would undermine the chances of the $800 million park ever being built.

But Verschoor, in an effort to quell some uneasy about the plan, did agree to add a few provisions to SB 1450 -- all provisions which theme park organizers are willing to accept.

Hanging in the balance is a plan to convert 300 acres of private land in Eloy into a complex of rides, restaurants and hotels all built around the music from the 1950s on forward.

Backers said they need the authority to form their own level of government on those lands and be able to raise a tax of up to 9 percent on all activities within the park to pay off the $750 million that would be borrowed for construction. Without that, they said, the park would not be built.