Anaheim is set for a wild ride over housing
A plan to build 1,500 homes on the outskirts of Anaheim's resort district began quietly last June at a weekday planning meeting at City Hall. Three people attended, two of them representing the developer.
Things have gotten much noisier since then.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend Tuesday night's City Council meeting, where the project is scheduled to be voted on. Thousands more will watch the proceedings on cable television, and news media from across the country will cover the proceedings.
"I'm expecting quite the spectacle," Councilwoman Lucille Kring said. "It's going to be pretty wild."
In the city that has politely ridden shotgun for Disney and the bags of tourist money it generates, the development plan has become a defining moment. The battle -- and it's become a fierce one -- pits advocates for low-cost housing against business interests, who argue a resort district is not the place to put condos and apartments.
Since that sparsely attended meeting 10 months ago, high-powered attorneys, union leaders, political consultants and petition-signature gatherers have joined the debate over whether to rezone a 26-acre parcel on Katella Avenue to allow the project, which would include 225 low-cost units.
Tuesday's meeting will be the council's second attempt to settle the dispute. In February, the council deadlocked 2 to 2 on whether to allow a residential project in an area zoned for tourist-friendly uses.
Kring abstained from that vote after Disney attorneys raised at the eleventh hour the possibility she might have a conflict of interest because of a wine bar she planned to open nearby. But in March a state commission ruled that Kring could vote on the issue because she had only signed a nonbinding letter of intent to lease space in the GardenWalk development.
Kring hasn't indicated how she will vote, but she said this week that she has been discussing a compromise plan with the project's developer, SunCal Cos. Mayor Curt Pringle and Councilman Harry Sidhu proposed a separate compromise that would allow some low-cost housing in the resort district.
Sidhu said a Kring compromise plan could delay the process further.
"I will not accept any compromise unless the voting is continued to another date," he said.
In the two months since the council deadlock, Disney and tourist officials have increased the pressure to keep housing out of the resort district. The company has sued the city to block the project, and now Disney and business leaders are seeking a citywide vote to keep the area free of housing.
