Characteristically Grand Designs Contemplated at Disneyland Hotel : * Marketing: Walt Disney Co. floats a plan to paint giant murals of animated stars that would cover 13-story towers. The city would have to agree.

Come next year, the Disneyland Hotel may be even easier to find. Just look for the 13-story mermaid.

Or Peter Pan or Baloo the bear. To try to make itself stand out, the hotel is mulling the idea of painting giant murals on the outside walls of its three towers.

“It’s something we’re just considering,” said Joe Aguirre, hotel spokesman. “It would just be a little crowning touch.”

The Walt Disney Co. is considering painting the sides of the hotel towers with scenes from three Disney movies--”The Jungle Book,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Peter Pan.” The idea, said Aguirre, is “just to develop some identity, something unique about the Disneyland Hotel.”

With its lagoon, nightly live shows and monorail link to the Magic Kingdom, some might consider the hotel unique as is. But the resort is undergoing a massive renovation for the first time since Disney acquired it from the Wrather Corp. in 1988.

The murals would have to pass muster with Anaheim city officials. Murals would require a conditional use permit that could turn both the city Planning Commission and City Council into art juries.

The mural proposal comes at a time when Disney is pushing the city for the creation of a “garden district” as part of Disney’s plan to build a new $3-billion super-resort surrounding Disneyland. Among other things, the district would require businesses to tear down garish signs, replacing them with small, low-slung designs.

Though the murals would take up the entire sides of the towers, Zoning Division Manager Greg Hastings said he got a quick look at one of Disney’s mural ideas a few months ago and declared it a “quality drawing.” Mayor Fred Hunter said he hadn’t seen the proposal for the murals and is withholding judgment.

Adds Aguirre: “The renditions I’ve seen are very tasteful and create an icon for the hotel.”