Neighbors Fight Disney Resort Plans

The Walt Disney Co. may epitomize wholesome family entertainment to many, but to a group of homeowners who live in the shadow of Disneyland it is a corporate giant whose greed is matched only by its political might.

And, because Disney seems intent on building a $3-billion expansion next to a residential neighborhood, the homeowners say they are being forced into a desperate fight to protect their property values and quality of life.

“It’s a war,” said Doug Kintz, a member of Anaheim HOME, a vocal group of city homeowners opposed to the proposed Disneyland Resort. “It’s a David and Goliath thing. We know it’s a long shot, but we can’t let them run over us.”

For months, HOME--which stands for Home Owners Maintaining their Environment--has been waging a public campaign to defeat the proposed Disneyland Resort. To battle the expansion of Disneyland, HOME has filmed a series of short programs for local public access cable television, put up a billboard urging a boycott of the park, handed out bumper stickers and picketed Disney rallies and City Council meetings.

Although some business owners, several school districts and the city of Garden Grove are publicly criticizing aspects of the project, no group has been as active as HOME.

“We don’t have a lot of money compared to Disney, but we’re doing everything we can think of to fight this,” said Curtis Stricker, president of the group which boasts more than 1,000 members. “We won’t give up.”

But battling Disney is a monumental task, he conceded, made all the more difficult by the tremendous public and political support for the project, which calls for a second theme park called Westcot next to Disneyland, at least six more hotels and a 5,000-seat amphitheater.

Anaheim councilmen are starry-eyed at the cascade of money and other benefits that the resort would bring. County, state and even national officials seem sold by Disney predictions that the project would create up to 40,000 jobs locally, generate tens of millions in revenue and hundreds of millions in commerce.

“None of these supporters,” Stricker says, “lives next door to Disneyland.”

The mention of Stricker’s group to Disney and city officials usually sets off an immediate groan, a wave of the hand and a brisk “no comment.”

Some associated with the project privately dismiss HOME as cranky malcontents. Others dispute the membership figure and contend that only a noisy core of a dozen people are behind all the activism.

Nonetheless, HOME has the attention of both Disney and city officials. The group has already won some considerable concessions despite working on a shoestring budget of several thousand dollars, mostly raised through dues and donation requests made in a periodic newsletter that is sent to 1,600 households.

One major accomplishment has been the redesign of a massive parking structure slated to be built on Walnut Street at Ball Road. Disney agreed to alter the plans to lessen the noise and visual impact on nearby homeowners. Also, a street and freeway off-ramp were changed to lessen traffic through the mostly middle-class neighborhoods near the park.

But group members say they aren’t satisfied: They was the 16,700-car parking garage moved to a non-residential location. Further, they say, HOME’s other concerns about traffic, noise, air pollution and construction impacts are not being adequately addressed by Disney officials. All of the project’s impacts, they complain, will hurt the value of their homes.

“They really haven’t done much to help us,” Stricker said. “We have to help ourselves.”

Many HOME members blame the present park for an assortment of problems that have bloomed in recent years. Noise from late-night fireworks and Disney’s new Fantasmic open-air-music-and-laser show are among the most annoying, they said.

Also, they occasionally have to cope with tourists trying to park in their neighborhoods and heavy traffic on their streets. And, with a bigger Disney, they anticipate bigger problems.

“Much bigger,” said Steve White, a member of HOME’s executive board.

Betty Ronconi has lived across the street from Disneyland for 36 years and is typical of many in HOME who believe the relationship between Disney and the local neighborhoods has become increasingly strained in recent years.

“I’m not anti-Disney,” said the 64-year-old woman. “I just don’t want them destroying our neighborhood and this project will do that.” Like others, Ronconi said that she frequently takes out-of-town visitors to Disneyland and that her children have had summer jobs at the park.

“But that doesn’t make me obligated to them for the rest of my life,” she said.

Most of HOME’s members are small business and blue-collar workers living within the 92802 and 92805 ZIP codes, directly west and north of the park.

The neighborhoods next to the park were built about the same time as Disneyland, which opened its doors in 1955. In fact, many members spoke wistfully of those early years when Walt Disney ran the park and the Disney empire. If Disney were alive, they said, the company would probably be more sympathetic to their concerns and their activism wouldn’t be necessary.

In fact, when HOME got started, it wasn’t responding to problems with Disneyland at all, but a city redevelopment plan. That was in 1988, and the group was able to successfully lobby the Anaheim City Council to drop the large project targeted for the same area that Disney is currently hoping to develop.

But now they face a far more potent adversary.

To combat Disney’s political clout and massive public relations team, HOME members said they are trying to enlist other Anaheim residents.

“We need to reach as many people as possible with the limited resources that we have,” White said. That’s why the group filmed four 15-minute “infomercials” about the adverse impacts of the Disney project.

The segments were done in a simple interview format with about half a dozen members of HOME criticizing the design of the proposed Disneyland Resort.

Art Maulsby, programming director for MultiVision Cable, called the spots “pretty boring, like a lot of public access television.” And Stricker said the public’s response has been fairly small.

Ronald K. Dominguez, executive vice president of Walt Disney Attractions, said the company has been trying hard to work with HOME and has had at least four meetings with the group’s leaders. He acknowledged, however, that HOME may never be satisfied with Disney’s actions.

He called it “a shame” that HOME recently put up a billboard at Euclid Street and Lincoln Avenue blasting the project. The billboard reads: “Stop the Theft of Public Funds. Boycott Disney” and is a reference to Disney’s request for about $750 million in public financing for public works improvements, including two massive parking structures.

“It’s unfortunate they don’t understand that the project will bring money into the city,” Dominguez said.

Richard Anthony, another member of HOME’s executive board, said the group understands the concept perfectly. “They want public money for a private project,” Anthony said. “It’s a big slick deal and we’re the ones in jeopardy.”

Hundreds of homeowners near the park fear their property values will plummet if the project is built, Anthony said, adding that the expansion fallout is already being felt by several residents on Walnut Street who have been unable to sell their homes.

Several real estate brokers in the area tied the current sales problems to a general slump in the housing market, though they said that property values might drop in the future if the project is built.

“Nobody will want to buy there because of all the traffic, noise and construction problems that would result from the project,” said Anthony, a 36-year Anaheim resident. “Disney is this big company and we’re the little guys. They’re trying to squeeze us into a corner. They don’t care about us at all. . . . When Walt Disney was alive the company was a good neighbor. Walt was very concerned about the community.”

Several HOME members blame Disney Chairman Michael D. Eisner for a corporate ethic that focuses more on the profit margin than the welfare of its neighbors.

“We could tell within six months after Eisner took over that there was a difference,” Anthony said. “Maybe we were spoiled by the concern that Walt showed. But right now we’re definitely at the other extreme.”