City OKs Funds for Studies on Disney Project, Land-Use

The City Council on Tuesday approved spending $515,000 to expand a study of the proposed $1-billion Walt Disney Co. second attraction in Anaheim and fund the development of a land-use strategy for the Disneyland area.

Under the contracts proposed by the city’s Planning Department and approved by the City Council, Michael Brandman Associates of Santa Ana will expand its ongoing environmental study of the new Disney development to include the theme park’s possible impact on the Disneyland area.

City Planning Director Joel Fick said Tuesday that the environmental study, which will cost $228,367 and take about a year to complete, will be divided into two parts.

The first part will attempt to measure Disney’s expansion plans and how those plans will affect demands for city services, from water systems to police and fire protection. The other half of the study will attempt to evaluate the existing environmental conditions in the Disneyland area. Those conditions would include noise levels, traffic congestion and access to Disneyland, area hotels and the Anaheim Convention Center.

The environmental study would encompass Anaheim’s “commercial recreation zone,” which is bounded by Ball Road to the north, Convention Way to the south, Walnut Street to the west and to the east by the Santa Ana Freeway.

The council has also called for the development of a land-use strategy in the zone and hired P & D Technologies of Orange to conduct a $287,050 study.

“The . . . plan will establish an overall identity and land-use plan which maximizes the area’s potential,” planning officials said in documents describing the study.

As part of the study, the contractor is expected to produce design guidelines for the area and a “streetscape” program.

The study outline said the contractor will also develop a plan that would identify possible new street alignments and areas that could be served by public transportation systems, including the proposed Anaheim “people-mover” system.