ANAHEIM : City Moves Forward on Plaza Renovation

The Anaheim Plaza area is one step closer to a redevelopment plan that city officials and merchants hope will transform the failing mall into an attractive and profitable commercial center.

The City Council has voted unanimously to accept the next phase of a proposal for a 350-acre redevelopment area bounded by Euclid and Loara streets, the Santa Ana Freeway and Crescent Avenue. A public hearing is scheduled next month on the plan, which may include improved street and freeway access and a parking structure.

Anaheim Plaza, which is owned by the State Teachers Retirement System, has lost one of its major tenants and almost half of its smaller stores over the last decade.

Two Anaheim teachers’ unions have passed resolutions urging the retirement system to hasten efforts to either develop the aging mall or market it more aggressively. The mall is currently for sale.

The Anaheim Secondary Teachers Assn. and the Anaheim Elementary Education Assn. both claim that city teachers are required to give about 8% of their salaries to the retirement system, and want a more profitable investment.

Earlier this year, a few dozen remaining merchants formed a group that collected about 8,000 signatures from patrons and residents asking that something be done to improve the mall area.

While commercial tenants are becoming scarce, the owners have rented space to some less traditional operations in an attempt to get more people to the mall.

Two months ago, the Anaheim Museum contracted to rent space in a former shoe store to open the Plaza Gallery. This summer, the Anaheim Union High School District plans to provide educational and counseling services in what it calls a “storefront school.” The city stands to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual sales tax revenues if the 35-year-old Anaheim Plaza, the oldest mall in Orange County, becomes more popular.