Anaheim Residents Aren’t Happy with Disney
The city of Anaheim and The Walt Disney Company continue to negotiate as part of the DisneylandForward project.
Recently, some locals have objected to an essential part of those plans.
Here’s why Anaheim residents aren’t happy about Disney.
Disney Faces an Essential Vote
April promises to be a significant month for Disney executives.
We already have Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo trying to force their way onto Disney’s Board of Directors.
That vote will occur at the Annual Shareholder Meeting on April 3rd.
Realistically, even if that vote goes against Disney, it’s unlikely to have much impact on short-term plans.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Chairman of the Board Mark Parker control most of the votes.
At worst, Peltz and Rasulo would aggravate the other Board members with their ideas.
Meanwhile, a much less discussed topic matters substantially more to Disney officials.
The company and the city of Anaheim are currently negotiating vital parts of the DisneylandForward program.
As I recently discussed, Disney has promised to spend a minimum of $1.9 billion in and around Disneyland Resort.
The vote for this project is likely to occur at some point in April.
Disney and Anaheim’s planning committees have already hashed out most of the details.
However, Anaheim’s City Council must sign off on the deal, which makes the process at least somewhat political.
Currently, Disney is hosting “Community Coffees,” gatherings which are open to the public.
Disney’s goal is to win enough support from the locals that the City Council members will vote in favor of the project.
Ultimately, Disney needs to modify zoning ordinances from the 1990s to create expansion opportunities at Disneyland Resort.
Should the vote go Disney’s way, theme park fans could enjoy as many as 16 new rides at The Happiest Place on Earth!
None of that will happen unless Disney and Anaheim come to terms, though.
For this reason, the opinions of residents in the area matter greatly.
Why Does Magic Way Matter?
What could stop Disneyland from expansion? Well, I previously listed a few other reasons, but now we’ve got a more basic one.
That’s a reporter for KTLA driving down a street called Magic Way in Anaheim, California.
If you watched the video, you likely noticed that it’s short, but it includes entrances to Disneyland Hotel and Downtown Disney.
That 1,150-foot road may not seem important to you or me.
For Disney, it’s a potential spot to transition into a pedestrian walkway, though.
That’s the gist of what’s happening here. Disney wants to pay Anaheim $40 million for Magic Way and parts of two other streets.
If you’re familiar with the roads surrounding Disneyland Resort, the others are Clementine Street and Hotel Way.
All of this seems perfectly doable based on the research of Disney and Anaheim officials.
They performed research at the request of a few residents.
According to their data, 11,153 drivers use Magic Way each day.
The research indicates that 11,053 of those drivers are going to Disney-related activities.
That’s 99.1 percent of all traffic on Magic Way. It’s a Disney street by any reasonable evaluation.
However, this data shows that 100 people use Magic Way for other purposes, and they’re the unhappy people right now.
Some of the residents attended the most recent meeting on Monday, February 26th.
During this conversation, one of them noted that he uses Magic Way as a shortcut for his drive to and from work.
The resident indicates that he saves 15 minutes each way due to this road.
For this reason, the Anaheim local (and voter) wants the Anaheim City Council to reject the proposal.
This one complaint has earned a disproportionate amount of media attention and is causing problems for Disneyland Forward’s candidacy.
Disney’s Counter and What Happens Next
After a January meeting had included similar concerns about Magic Way, Disney hired a consultant to study the matter.
Based on research done from January 31st through February 4th, the consulting firm disproved the claim.
According to their on-site study on those dates, less than 200 cars turned from a different residential street on Magic Way.
Among those vehicles, only 30 of those cars traveled onto Disneyland Drive.
In short, there isn’t any data supporting the fact that Anaheim residents frequently use Magic Way for non-Disney purposes.
In fact, we’re only talking about an average of barely one per hour…but the topic matters greatly to that one person.
This is another example of how city officials must weigh the needs of many residents vs. a few.
Anaheim residents rarely use Magic Way, while the City Council could use that $40 million for municipal improvements.
That one person would still face an extra half-hour commute each day, though.
If more Anaheim residents speak out against the selling of Magic Way, this becomes a huge problem for Disney, though.
This hiccup will probably get resolved quickly, as Disney wants and needs the zoning ordinances changed.
Meanwhile, most Anaheim residents will benefit, as Disneyland intends to add new crosswalks and bike lanes.
So, the people complaining remain squarely in the fractional minority.
Still, this wouldn’t be the first time recently that a molehill turned into a mountain for Disney.
DisneylandForward is likely to win its April vote, but that’s far from a certainty. Stay tuned.
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Feature Photo: Disney