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.

In its second week, the signature-gathering drive is halfway to its goal of 20,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the February ballot, according to campaign officials. The group behind the ballot initiative is called SOAR -- Saving Our Anaheim Resort -- a coalition of more than three dozen business owners and community activists.

Meanwhile, SunCal officials have formed their own group -- Defend and Protect Anaheim -- made up of business owners and residents.

The group has sent two mailers in the last 10 days, informing residents that Disney is “opposing a project which will create houses where our police officers, teachers, nurses, firefighters and resort area employees could live.” The literature contained tear-away postcards that can be sent to Anaheim council members expressing disappointment with Disney’s lawsuit against the city.

On the council, Lorri Galloway has led the push for the project’s low-cost housing component, defying Disney along the way.

The tension surrounding Galloway’s high-profile role came to a head last week when she was invited to speak at Disneyland’s Grand Californian hotel before a consortium of bankers that funds low-cost housing projects.

The speaking engagement came two weeks after Galloway was escorted from the Disneyland Hotel during a Times photo shoot for alleged trespassing.

“It wasn’t too long ago that Disney security told me they were going to arrest me if I went back on the property,” Galloway said.

“Who would have guessed last year that I’d be wondering whether I should go to a Disney property? This is all so bizarre.”

After wavering for hours, Galloway opted to go ahead with her speech.

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david.mckibben@latimes.com