ANAHEIM : Council Delays Vote on Marketfaire Mall

After hearing protests from local residents, the City Council on Tuesday night postponed a decision on two developers’ request to build the first major shopping center in the East Anaheim Hills.

The proposed 44-acre shopping center would be built northwest of the intersection of Weir Canyon Road and the Riverside Freeway, just south of the Santa Ana River.

Several residents of the area complained that the center, especially a proposed 10-screen movie theater and an automobile equipment retailer, would create too much traffic and noise in their neighborhood.

“The retail center will make (traffic) a whole lot worse,” said William A. Taraschi, 33, who said he lives about 500 yards from the site. “We can’t get into our homes now, and we didn’t move there to get access to shopping.”

The traffic study for the project estimates that the number of cars on Weir Canyon Road would increase by 26,000 a day.

Marshall B. Krupp, president of Anaheim-based CSA Real Estate Development, which is partners with the Newport Beach-based Koll Co. in the proposed Marketfaire Center, said he will bring new plans to the planning commission to try and resolve the neighbors’ complaints. The issue should be back before the council in about a month, Mayor Fred Hunter said.

Proposed tenants for the open-air center include two major stores, Costco and Home Club, a multiplex Edwards cinema, a bank, two restaurants and about 20 other smaller retail shops, said Michael L. Welch, senior project manager for the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency.

The developers also have asked the council to return to them about $5.7 million of sales taxes that would be generated by the shopping center, to make up for the high cost of building on the site.