The Anaheim city council is scheduled to vote this Tuesday on an affordable housing plan that is opposed by Disneyland and other tourism dependent businesses in the Anaheim Resort district. This article in the Orange County Register makes it sound like Disney et al might be in for a tough time on Tuesday.
This matter was voted on and lost once before when a council member had to recuse herself after a possible conflict of interest. If that conflict of interest has been resolved and members vote the same way, the vote will go against Disney this time. To counter this Disney and other resort businesses have filed a ballot initiative that would constrain the city council’s ability to make changes in the resort district.
I’ve been out of the loop of Anaheim politics for a few years. But it sounds like there have been a couple council members elected that really don’t think Disneyland has been pulling its weight in the tax and payroll base of the city. While there could definitely be some payroll improvements (but that is always the case), the theme park is the driver for such a large portion of Anaheim’s tax roles you really have to wonder what the city council is thinking.
Every single time this comes up I think that. What the heck are those ingrates thinking out there?
Disney is Anaheim. Without the parks it’s just another suburb of Los Angeles- apparently with tons of affordable housing. Instead of a third gate they should just open a Wal-Mart.
We’ve gotten at least two mailers from the group that is trying to push the housing through despite the Resort District designation, and bashing Disney in the process. Their marketing pretends that 1) they aren’t trying to make a profit or pushing for their own self-interest, which they are, and; 2) that Disney is somehow being unfair in asking that the City government stick to the designated zoning requirements. If there is going to be zoning, why not stick to it? I promise if these people are successful, I will literally show up at future meetings where residents are griping about Disney’s development plans and I will tell them to shut the heck up because they fought hard to live next to Disney knowing full well what they were getting themselves into.
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