A Jim Leonard of Anaheim wrote this "Reader Rebuttal" from last Sunday's OC Register Commentary section.
It's basic Disney Corporation/SOAR propaganda, but a couple of paragraphs deserve special scrutiny because they are key examples of misinformation being presented to voters by Disney/SOAR.
First, there's the new "SunCal's project is super-dense" canard:
On April 24, three members of the City Council voted to...change the zoning from hotel uses to some residential housing, totaling 1,500 homes. This translates to 77 units per acre (per planning staff), which is the highest density of any residential housing in Orange County.
This description of the density is, at best, a half-truth that deliberately skews what the Anaheim city planning staff told the council at the April 24 meeting. Readers should go to the Anaheim city website and watch or listen to the segment of the April 24 Council meeting dealing with this question (in the online video window, use the pull-down menu to jump to item 24 on the council agenda. The pertinent segment is at the 1 hour and 17 minute mark).
Mayor Curt Pringle and later Councilman Harry Sidhu zero in on the density question with Anaheim Planning Director Sheri Vander Dussen. The figure quoted in the Leonard letter takes Ms. Vander Dussen's answer completely out of context.
Under the general plan amendment approved by the council on April 24, the maximum number of dwelling units on the SunCal-optioned lot is equal, provided environmental equivalence is demonstrated, to the maximum number of hotel rooms permitted on that lot.
The SunCal optioned lot is currently zoned for 75 hotel rooms for parcel or 75 hotel rooms per acre (whichever is greater).
The Disney Corporation's spin, repeated in Mr. Leonard's letter, is that SunCal will be able to build 77 condominiums per acre on the SunCal-optioned lot -- which would amount to 2,002. Mr. Leonard even attributes that to city planning staff, which anyone who heard the city planning director's explanation would know to be a gross distortion.
The key consideration -- which the Disney forces conveniently ignore -- is "environmental equivalence." There isn't a pure 1-to1 ratio. Look at it this way: if the environmental impact of one condominium was equal to the environmental impact of3 hotel rooms, then a developer would only be allowed to build one condominium for every 3 hotel rooms permitted by the zoning.
Once you factor in environmental equivalence, the actual number of condominiums permissible on the SunCal-optioned lot is much less than 75 unites per acre. The Disney forces spin is a wild and knowing distortion.
