Whatever Disney Plans, City Study to Be Ready Soon

Even as Anaheim city staffers are nearly finished studying the impact of a third theme park, Walt Disney Co. officials say they still don’t know what they’ll put on the 78-acre parcel near its two existing amusement parks.

Getting approval for a draft environmental report will be Disney’s first major hurdle. Last July, Disney executives announced vague plans to build a third amusement park. They lobbed options such as a theme park or a water park, more hotels, and a retail and dining center.

Disney officials said Wednesday they aren’t any closer to knowing what they plan to build but continue to move forward with the process.

“We’re not even at the ramp-up phase,” said Ed Chuchla, director of development for Walt Disney Imagineering. “Until you understand that you have the right to be there, it doesn’t make sense to start the creative process.”

The Anaheim Planning Commission this week unanimously approve a procedure for Disney to seek changes to city plans that guide development for the area. And city officials expect the draft environmental impact report to be completed soon. That routine report will address issues such as transportation, utilities, water, air quality and noise, said Deputy City Manager Tom Wood, even though the city doesn’t yet know what will be at the site.

“We do these things all the time,” he said.

The city looked at the same issues when they approved plans for the second theme park, Disney’s California Adventure, which opened earlier this year. Wood said many of the infrastructure issues such as transportation that would affect current plans already were addressed during California Adventure planning.

The firmest elements of the plan so far are a 9,000-space parking structure and an elevated “people mover” linking the third site with Disneyland, Downtown Disney and California Adventure.

Still to come is word on what Disney would place on the remaining 78 acres south of Katella Avenue and east of Harbor Boulevard.

Steve White, president of Homeowners for Maintaining their Environment (HOME), a neighborhood group critical of California Adventure, said the group awaits the draft EIR. Until then, he said, “We’re kind of in the dark. . . . I expect our concerns are going to be largely the same, the impact on air quality, traffic, schools, that sort of thing.”

White said he finds it “peculiar” that the city can draft an EIR without knowing specifically what Disney may build.

“How can you really study something when you don’t know what it is?” he said. “It’s like a developer’s blank check, I suppose.”

City officials said the report will address all scenarios--hotels, a theme park and a retail/entertainment center. And Disney planners said they would be required to abide by any city requirements.

“The EIR sets up a restrictive envelope and says, ‘Here’s all the rules you have to abide by,’ ” Chuchla said. “There are some very clear perimeters.”