Anaheim city staff gave a report on the Anaheim Resort 2.0 plan during Tuesday’s city council meeting, which is designed to leverage public and private investment to upgrade local infrastructure and boost the city’s tourism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a presentation from Anaheim’s Deputy City Manager Ted White, alongside Planning and Building Director Heather Allen, Director of Public Works Rudy Emami and Laura Johnson, director of urban design consultancy at Gehl Studios, the resort plan aims to improve infrastructure utility, facilitate movement throughout the Anaheim Resort District and increase the district’s interactivity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The presentation outlined the four “experience pillars” that the resort’s plan focuses on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first goal focuses on creating memorable social spaces by providing a variety of experiences in public areas, creating multifunctional infrastructure and ensuring visitor comfort through comfortable, safe, shady, quiet public areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second goal focuses on facilitating movement throughout the district by offering safe mobility options, designing transportation according to the natural flow of the district’s traffic and increasing interactivity opportunities throughout the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The third goal focuses on stimulating private reinvestment to better bridge the park to public life by incentivizing increased density and variety and aligning district growth with an established identity.<\/p>\n
The fourth goal is to broaden the district’s appeal through developing a distinct district ambiance and evolving the Garden District Palette.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“A constant theme in the conversations, the workshops and the brainstorming sessions conducted as part of this process was a nearly universal appreciation and admiration for some of the key existing characteristics of the resort,” White said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
White states that the plan developed six project ideas to facilitate the development of this resort plan, including a landmark at the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue, a greenway and an east-west connector.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Harbor-Katella landmark intersection would transform one of the city’s major street crossings by implementing an art installation or landmark. According to White, art installation ideas for the intersection include a suspended art piece over the intersection, pedestrian-accessible art pieces that can be used as shaded areas or the development of patterned paving to create an art installation in the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The greenway development would help relieve sidewalk crowding and diversify public areas by turning “passive landscaping” into functional spaces for the public and expanding the network and scale of public areas in the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The greenway plan is further divided into three segments around the Harbor Boulevard and Disney Way areas to accommodate the specific improvement needs of each area, including developing new parallel walking paths along Harbor Boulevard, south of Disney Way and creating a “pocket park” in the northeast corner of the two streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The east-west connector plan, which is currently moving forward, would simplify the visitor journey between the Anaheim Resort District and the city’s Platinum Triangle, which comprises the area that includes the Angel Stadium, Honda Center and The Grove of Anaheim.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The strategies for the connector plan identify the priorities to consider when developing the district’s transportation modes and routes, including ensuring high-quality waiting and arrival experiences and relaxing transit through developments like short service wait times, no-cost or low-cost rides and varied seating options.\u00a0<\/p>\n
White stated that the connector plan aims to treat end-point structures, such as the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, as hubs for special districts by providing bathrooms, hydration stations, “grab and go” convenience options and developing brand language that differentiates the connector from other transit or bus systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City staff’s presentation included an implementation framework that provided near-term, mid-term and long-range development models. Near-term for the district’s development strategies includes developing high-impact strategies through updating policy guidelines, testing pilot programs and developing toolkits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mid-term development plans cite physical improvements and the strategic implementation of proposed improvements when appropriate funding and construction opportunities arise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Long-term development plans consist of transformational projects that would mandate further studies, partner alignment and financial allocation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During council comment, District 3 Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava cited concerns about the funding mechanisms for this project, noting the city’s structural deficit, and suggested that a city council member work with Disney to develop fundraising strategies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I do appreciate that we were able to invest in the resort for the past 30 years, but I do recognize the fact that we still have a deficit that was generated by a lot of this investment,” Rubalcava said. “I think that when we’re looking at funding mechanisms for Resort 2.0, it should not be at the expense of residents in the districts that are surrounding the resort.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anaheim city staff gave a report on the Anaheim Resort 2.0 plan during Tuesday’s city council meeting, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,12921,165,164,19754,8076],"class_list":["post-498673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-city-council","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-anaheim-resort","tag-infrastructure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}