Disney, Anaheim Discuss Future of Strawberry Farm

As it prepares to open a second Anaheim amusement park next year, Walt Disney Co. continues to consider developing a nearby strawberry farm it acquired in 1998, company and city officials said Wednesday.

Disney’s discussions with the city have focused on such issues as sewers and traffic, rather than concepts or timetables for developing the land on Harbor Boulevard just south of Disneyland, city spokesman Bret Colson said.

Another full-fledged amusement park seems unlikely in the near term, but a water park like those beside Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm could be built quickly.

Disney spokesman Ray Gomez said the company has discussed the land with the city off and on for more than a decade. Despite the recent talks, he said, “we have not made any decisions about the parcel.”

In a separate announcement, officials said Anaheim’s former Pan Pacific Hotel, which Disney bought five years ago and renamed the Disneyland Pacific, will again be rechristened this fall. It will be called the Paradise Pier Hotel, the name of a section of the new California Adventure amusement park.