Anaheim residents and business leaders piled into City Hall Monday night to give the city’s Planning Commission early feedback on the Disneyland Resort’s expansion proposal.
While ostensibly the Monday commission meeting was a workshop focused on the DisneylandForward plan’s 17,000-page environmental impact report, many residents used the opportunity to voice their support or concerns with the project.
The seven-member Planning Commission heard presentations from city staff and Disney representatives about the proposal to update a 1990s plan to give the company more flexibility to add attractions, hotels and restaurants in areas of the resort property currently outside where the theme parks already are. The proposal would not add to the Disneyland resort’s current footprint or the caps on what it is allowed to build.
Disney’s Global Development Vice President Rachel Alde said the company is committed to working with residents and “we are simply asking to utilize the entitlements that we already have for the theme park and hotel and spread it across the lands that we already own and control.”
The focus of the proposal is along the western side of the resort and the southeast side on the Toy Story parking lot where there are single-family and multi-family homes nearby.
Beverly Griggs, who lives close to the park, said she moved to Anaheim to be closer to Disneyland, and that she has been pleased with the answers the company has given her about the development proposal. Griggs did express concerns about pests possibly intruding on her house if the theme park moves more of the guest amenities closer.
“When you are gonna move churros, cotton candy and popcorn a hundred feet away from my house, I want to make sure that the procedures are in place to make (sure) those little guys don’t come across,” Griggs said. “When Disneyland closed down for the pandemic, we had rats and roaches. And as soon as Disneyland reopened, they went…
Read the full article here
