Katella Renewal Plan Foes Told How to Fight City Hall

About 350 Anaheim residents, many of whom live within the city’s proposed 4,500-acre Katella Redevelopment Project, listened Sunday as a private attorney told them how to fight City Hall.

“Don’t trust City Hall,” warned attorney Christopher A. Sutton, the featured speaker at an outdoor rally at Stoddard Park sponsored by Home Owners for Maintaining Their Environment, a newly organized group battling the Katella project.

Sutton, an attorney hired by the group from the same Pasadena law firm that successfully fought redevelopment plans along Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach recently, was given a warm welcome as he spoke to concerned Anaheim residents who are just beginning to battle what Sutton termed “one of the biggest, and most aggressive redevelopment plans in the state.”

The Katella project is expected to be completed in 2022 at a cost of $2.7 billion. As proposed, more than 12,400 residences could be affected by the plan, which covers an area with a population of 32,844, or almost 14% of the city. Under the proposal, some residents would face displacement, while others could have a portion of their property taken by the city for street widening and noise barriers against increased traffic.

Angry residents won a small victory last week when the City Council voted to re-evaluate the project’s size and boundaries. But most residents who attended Sunday’s meeting said they would like to kill the plan. Failing that, they would like to protect their individual neighborhoods by having them excluded from the proposal.

“We want to get the boundaries changed,” said Lee Harley, a resident of one of the 12 areas proposed for redevelopment by the city.

Harley said he is “very worried,” and has trouble sleeping at night because his home is across from the Anaheim Convention Center on West Street. After 20 years in the Marine Corps and 17 in the aerospace industry, Harley is planning to retire within a few years.

“But in order to sell my home, I’ve got to notify a prospective buyer that this property is in a redevelopment area. I won’t be able to sell my home, unless I sell it for thousands less than it is worth. How am I going to retire?” he asked.

Sunday’s rally was mainly an informational gathering, according to Douglas Kintz, the homeowner group’s president. Formed earlier this month, Kintz’s group has named neighborhood block representatives, started a newsletter and launched various fund-raising activities.

‘Anaheim Wants Your Home’

Group members sold T-shirts depicting a city bulldozer razing a house and carrying the phrase: “Andy Anaheim Wants Your Home!”

Most of the project’s support has been from Disneyland and several of Anaheim’s major hotels. The crowed booed when Sutton mentioned Disneyland’s expansion plans.

Resident Shirley Buelow, who has lived in Anaheim for 24 years, said that although Disneyland has been a good neighbor, many residents believe that Disneyland and the big hotels “are really pushing this.”

“Disneyland has been a good friend to us, but this, this is just something else.” Buelow said.

Her greatest fear, she said, is the loss of her home through the city’s power of eminent domain. “That’s why I attended the meeting here today.”