Yesterday, Tuesday, January 23, 2024, The Anaheim City Council held a workshop to discuss the DisneylandForward project. The workshop started at 3pm PT and lasted about 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
DisneylandForward Project Overview
The workshop started with Ted White, Deputy City Manager and County & Building Director, presenting a slide presentation about the DisneylandForward project. During the presentation, we learned that Disney plans to invest a minimum of $1.9 billion in Disneyland’s expansion over the next 10 years. We also learned about 3 streets that would be abandoned if the project is approved: Magic Way, Hotel Way and Clementine Street (south of Katella). From my understanding, Magic Way would still be available to pedestrians during normal operating hours but the road would only be used for emergency vehicles. No access would be permitted by non-emergency vehicles.
The slide presentation also discussed the potential pedestrian bridges over Harbor, the potential new parking garage east of Harbor on Disney Way, new bike paths, and several other points about the proposed project.
We also found out that if the project is approved, Disney will contribute a total of $30 million to Anaheim’s Affordable Housing fund – $15 million within one year of approval and another $15 million at five years following approval. Disney will also contribute $8 million to the City of Anaheim within one year of project approval to be used at the discretion of the City for City Park improvements or reinvestments. If the project is approved, Disney will also contribute up to $10 million for upgrades to the Katella Avenue sewer infrastructure.
The DisneylandForward project would not only mean new jobs for more Disneyland Resort employees but also for additional Police officers assigned to the Resort, additional Fire & Rescue employees and construction workers who would work on the expansion, roads, bridges and more. These are just a few of the highlights from the slide presentation. To view the entire slide presentation PDF on Anaheim.net, click here. You can also watch the entire workshop meeting on YouTube here.
City Council Members Questions
After the slide presentation, Anaheim City Council Members asked the Disney representatives a few questions. Most of the City Council questions were just clarification of a few points within the DisneylandFoward proposal like questions about how they could spend the Affordable Housing contribution, roadway improvements, etc.
From what I could tell, it seems that the majority of the Anaheim City Council were in favor of approving the DisneylandForward project and saw it as a win, win for everyone: the City, the Community (which includes city residents), Local Businesses and the Disneyland Resort. There was one council member who I personally thought was a little “greedy” saying that she thought Disney should contribute more money than what was in the proposal for Affordable Housing, Parks, roadway improvements, etc – but that was just my personal opinion. I think that the contributions in the proposal are very generous and above and beyond what is required. If Disney decides to increase their contributions based on the Council members feedback, I don’t have a problem with that but I do think that Disney is already offering very generous contributions so asking for more just seemed “greedy” in my opinion.
Public Questions and Comments
Next, the floor was opened up to questions from local businesses, nonprofits and residents of Anaheim. For the most part, local businesses and nonprofits expressed their support for the DisneylandForward Project. And about half of the residents who spoke expressed their support for the project.
Then, there was the other half of the residents that spoke. The primary grievance that related to the DisneylandForward project expressed from residents was toward the abandonment of Magic Way. Apparently many of them use Magic Way as a “cut-through” from Walnut to get to the I-5 freeway. However, it was earlier addressed from a question by one of the council members that the intersection of Ball Road and Walnut Street would be improved and that the City was already working on an improvement to the intersection. From what I gathered from the discussion, the Ball Road and Walnut Street intersection improvement was proceeding rather the DisneylandForward project was approved or not.
The majority of the residents who spoke seemed to be using the workshop as a forum to air their personal grievances that really did not relate to the DisneylandForward project. Residents spoke about their personal housing issues, affordable housing issues in the city, evictions, traffic issues, etc. Some complained that the City Council was having this workshop for Disney instead of having an Affordable Housing workshop. Clearly, many of the speakers did not understand that the City Council meets on a regular basis to discuss city matters and that this was just one meeting out of many public meetings to discuss other city issues.
While I sympathize with anyone with housing issues, financial issues, etc, California is a very expensive state to live in. And it is going to continue to be an expensive state to live in rather Disneyland expands or not. The cost of living within the United States has risen greatly over the past few years and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight. And in a state like California where the cost of living was already high, nationwide rising costs can be hard to manage sometimes.
Summary & Next Steps
In my opinion, the Disneyland Forward project is a win, win for everyone. With an approval, the City of Anaheim will be receiving several million dollars for Affordable Housing, Parks, Roadways and more from The Walt Disney Company. This is something that Disney did not have to offer in their proposal. However, it shows Disney’s willingness to be a good neighbor and to support and work with the community. The project will also create thousands of new jobs, not only for new Disneyland employees but also for Police Officers, Fire & Rescue, Construction and more.
The next step for the project is a Planning Commission Workshop in February. Then there is an anticipated Planning Commission Public Hearing in March and a final City Council Public Hearing in April.
You can learn more about the DisneylandForward project at DisneylandForward.com.
I’ll “See ya real soon” Mouseketeers!
