Anaheim Mayor Reverses Vote, OKs Building Ban

Three days after he scuttled a building ban supported by the Disney company, Mayor Fred Hunter called an emergency council meeting Friday, reversed his vote and pushed through a one-year moratorium on development near the amusement park.

Hunter, who is up for reelection in November, said he had rethought his position after talking with city planners and officials of the giant entertainment conglomerate, which has proposed a second theme park near Disneyland.

“Since Tuesday, I’ve had an additional opportunity to not only review the ordinance, but meet with our planning staff and the executives of the Disney company,” Hunter said. “The goal is to upgrade the commercial-recreation area. This will benefit not only the property owners in the area, but the citizens of Anaheim in general.”

Hunter immediately left the morning meeting for a previously scheduled knee operation and was unavailable for further comment.

Three City Council members followed Hunter’s lead on Friday, passing the stricter moratorium they had preferred, but could not get approved Tuesday because urgency ordinances require four votes. Instead, the group had opted Tuesday for a weaker 90-day moratorium as a compromise.

Council members Irv Pickler, Tom Daly and Miriam Kaywood joined Hunter to pass the one-year moratorium 4-0 on Friday. Councilman William D. Ehrle, who had opposed the longer ban on Tuesday, was absent Friday.

Council members said they were pleased with the turnaround, but upset that Hunter had jeopardized relations with Disney officials for what they called a vote-getting move before the Nov. 6 council election.

Pickler, who is vying with Hunter for the mayor’s seat, called Hunter’s change of vote “pathetic.”

Kaywood, who also is up for reelection, also took aim at the mayor.

“I think the mayor of this city needs to understand the extremity of the issues and not flip-flop,” she said.

Among the foes of the moratorium were local developers and the Rev. Ralph Wilkerson, president of the large Melodyland church in the moratorium area. Developers have regularly contributed campaign funds to Hunter. And the church’s congregation includes scores of Anaheim voters.

On the other side of the debate, Disney officials have also contributed to the mayor’s election coffers in the past. Last July, Hunter spent two days on a Disney-sponsored fishing trip.

Pickler, who along with Kaywood has also received donations from the Disney company and developers, said many people who attend Melodyland are not Anaheim residents.

The moratorium was initially enacted in May for 45 days, then extended in June for 90 days. It expires today, and under state government code could only be extended once more, for a maximum of one year.

City planners welcomed the reversal because they had said they needed more time to study how best to upgrade the tattered tourist area around Disneyland before a second development boom begins.

“We’re real pleased,” City Manager Jim Ruth said. “We think it’s a giant step forward.”

Despite competition from Long Beach, which also wants to host a second Disney theme park, Ruth said Disney officials had assured him that a park in Anaheim would be feasible. “They haven’t made any final determinations or anything,” Ruth said. “What they’ve said is, it’s a lot more plausible than they’d thought.”

Ruth said the full one-year moratorium is needed to allow time to complete a draft environmental review of the area.

Traffic jams and even gridlock already plague the area, and city officials have said they want to improve traffic flow before adding more development. Among the projects under study are widening the Santa Ana Freeway, expanding Katella Avenue and improving West Street.

“Traffic really is unbearable. Something has to be done to address infrastructure improvements,” said Kerry Scott Hunnewell, director of development for the Disney Development Co. “Disneyland has been there 35 years. We’re obviously an integral part and have a continuous business interest in that area.”

Hunnewell said that the company has supported the moratorium and that planning will be beneficial to the area even if Disney does not build another theme park on land it owns just west of Disneyland.