‘Owners Fear Loss of Homes’

The Times’ article “Owners Fear Loss of Homes” (Dec. 3) may reflect the feeling of some downtown Anaheim homeowners, but the actuality of the situation is that any such fears have no basis in fact.

The first two sentences of The Times’ story stated:

“Residents of one downtown Anaheim neighborhood don’t know from day to day whether their homes will be destroyed.”

“Fearing a proposed redevelopment plan to raze their turn-of-the-century houses to make way for higher-density developments, the homeowners are seeking to have 67 houses placed on the National Register of Historic Places to protect them against the bulldozers.”

The story goes on to say the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency is against the historic neighborhood designation and that--at a recent hearing of the State Historical Resources Commission--I was the only one to speak against the designation.

All of the above statements are false. Here are the facts:

- Not only does the city have no plans to raze this neighborhood but it also has been working with a committee of neighborhood residents for approximately two years to preserve it. - During its 11-year history, the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency has always sought to communicate with local residents. It is hard to believe that anyone who is seriously concerned about this neighborhood could actually be unaware of our efforts.

- The historical neighborhood designation is not opposed by the city, its Redevelopment Agency, its Redevelopment Commission, or its Project Area Committee. The only things these entities object to are three jogs in one proposed borderline because those jogs would interfere with tentative plans for other housing projects.

- While your article states that I spoke against the historical neighborhood designation at the hearing, I did not speak. However, representatives of both the Redevelopment Commission and the Project Area Committee did voice their objections to the suggested borderline. NORMAN J. PRIEST

Executive Director

Anaheim Redevelopment Agency