Citizen Outcry in Anaheim Stalls Katella Renewal Plan

The Anaheim City Council, responding to about 1,600 angry residents who stormed City Hall last week to oppose an ambitious redevelopment plan, voted unanimously Tuesday to re-evaluate the project’s size and boundaries.

While making no commitment to reducing the plan’s scale, Norman J. Priest, Anaheim community development director, said a city staff review would be conducted to determine precisely why each neighborhood was being included in the proposed 4,500-acre Katella Redevelopment Project.

“As a result,” Priest said in a prepared statement, “we expect to eliminate some areas from the project.” Several evening informational forums will be held beginning the week of July 27 in the neighborhoods that may fall within the project area, Priest added.

Mailers to Be Sent Out

Mailers providing further details of the public meetings will be sent this week, Priest said, adding that “after consulting with the Redevelopment and Planning commissions, city staff will review exactly why each neighborhood was included in the proposed project.”

Douglas Kintz, president of the primary homeowners group that lobbied against the plan last week, said Tuesday night that he hardly views the council action as a sign of victory.

“I think you can win the battle and lose the war,” Kintz said by telephone at a meeting where residents were discussing the Katella plan with an attorney.

“And I think they (city officials) are basically getting rid of the dissenting opinion. My personal feeling is that we as citizens should work together to defeat the whole plan. . . . An ugly dragon has reared its head, and now we have to kill the dragon.”

At a stormy July 6 public hearing, the City Council postponed a decision on the Katella project until Sept. 8. The huge turnout of angry residents forced the meeting to be moved from council chambers to the 2,400-seat Freedom Forum.

Fears Over Eminent Domain

Speakers at the hearing said they believed that their property rights were threatened by the redevelopment agency’s possible use of powers of eminent domain to take their property.

Kintz said Tuesday night, “If they can take my home, they can take your home, and that’s important to always remember.”

If approved, the Katella project--the city’s largest redevelopment project since renovation of downtown Anaheim began--would cost $2.7 billion and would be completed by the year 2022.

More than 12,400 residences could be affected by the project, which encompasses an area with a population of 32,844--nearly 14% of the city.

The zigzag boundaries of the Katella project generally include Orangewood Avenue at the south and Santa Ana Street at the northernmost edge. Anaheim Stadium and Disneyland lie within its boundaries.

City planners who cited deteriorating sewers, storm drains and increasing traffic congestion in residential areas proposed the Katella Redevelopment Project about a year ago as a way to pay for public improvements.

Priest said Tuesday that 100 acres or less of privately owned land--or 3% of the total project area--would have to be acquired by the city in order to make the public improvements included in the plan.

A 16-member Project Area Committee established under state redevelopment law to advise the City Council on matters concerning low-income housing within the proposed project area has endorsed the Katella plan, Priest said.

Benefits for Employers

Paul Bostwick, Project Area Committee chairman, pointed out at the July 6 council meeting that Disneyland and major hotels that fall within the redevelopment project’s boundaries provide employment and revenues to the city and thus should be provided with improved roads that the plan could fund.

But Kintz said many of the property owners living in the shadow of the Magic Kingdom--while they support the concept of redevelopment--oppose the idea of a world-renowned business such as Disneyland being included in a redevelopment project designed to help clean up blighted neighborhoods.

“I think they have an interest in it, Disneyland,” Kintz said. “It seems like you’re fighting all goodness and America. . . . But it still doesn’t seem right to have it there.”

City Manager William O. Talley said the concerns of homeowners and merchants will be “accommodated whenever possible” during the re-evaluation of project boundaries.