New Disneyland Parking Garage and Transportation Hub

[180º]

Another delay, as Disney once again re-submitted its application due to a small modification, also IMHO another "political" delay due to the Wincome Hotel issue. So the new submission is dated October 4th, so that means a hearing on November 14th, unless they delay again....

Also, the Hampton Inn has submitted a plan to replace the crappy Motels next to Katella CM lot on the south side of Katella across from the "Cast" 7-11. (Haster)

And the Cambria Inn will be 12 stories based on its submitted plan, where the former Flakey Jake's and DCA construction holding area was near the I-5 and Katella.

Thanks for keeping us updated on this. Hopefully they'll get this project off the ground sooner rather than later.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Thanks for keeping us updated on this. Hopefully they'll get this project off the ground sooner rather than later.

The political issues right now are the main issue, and it is getting nasty behind the scenes. Can't say too much, but there is a lot of people trying to figure out what to do, from ALL sides. So we need to wait until the election and see what happens there, and then we have the Wincome issue, which has not made too much news yet in the media, but is a BIG deal behind the scenes. Once those two things get sorted out, we have the "non-Disney" Hotels having issues in regards to access to the new bridge, but they can't make too much noise until the hearing (whenever that will be), and they also have to work with Disney on the issue, the last I heard, Disney is just "stalling" the issue currently. It does look like that the Carousel Inn will close at the end of the week.

Disney is still focused on getting the project done before Star Wars Land opens, but they don't have as much clout on this project as compared to on site projects like Star Wars Land and Marvel Land. (Pretty much already grandfathered and approved). It is the East of Harbor site that needs the new approval. (Except for the Pumbaa Structure, which is already signed off on).

I have a lunch scheduled later this week where I should find out more about the current situation.

 

[Ismael Flores]

Why would Disney allow people to walk under the electric towers? What about the EMF radiation coming off those towers that people are getting exposed to? Could guests sue Disney and SCE for allowing them to walk under them and developing cancer. What if the towers fall on them during an earthquake?

There is a walkway there already that leads to the existing parking lot. I doubt that it is an issue.

 

[TP2000]

Also, the Hampton Inn has submitted a plan to replace the crappy Motels next to Katella CM lot on the south side of Katella across from the "Cast" 7-11. (Haster)

And the Cambria Inn will be 12 stories based on its submitted plan, where the former Flakey Jake's and DCA construction holding area was near the I-5 and Katella.

12 stories is pretty tall for that area. Almost as tall as the Worldmark condos two blocks west.

But the real story here for me is the Hampton Inn plan to replace the crap druggy motel on Katella next to the CM employee parking lot, the Arena Inn. That complex is some of the sketchiest and scariest motels on Katella, and the source of all sorts of police calls. It really brings the entire vibe and aesthetic of the area way down, especially as it's right after you exit the freeway and enter the Resort District.

Arena Inn, Katella Avenue - Not What The City Planners Had In Mind

A Friday Night Balcony Sociable at the Arena Inn. BYOB!

Here's the thing though... people live there. A lot of people. There's at least 50 "rooms", if not 75. And each room has at least one person living there, many rooms have entire families. Costa Mesa recently tried to shut down a similar drug motel where everyone was living long term and the Costa Mesa Police were being called there at least several times per day for crime, drugs, violence, prostitution, etc. And the Costa Mesa city council approved a plan to bulldoze the motel and turn it into upscale apartments and the residents screamed bloody murder and protested. It got ugly in the media.

If the Leftist protest groups get wind of this, they'll turn it into an ugly PR campaign of heartless "Disney" kicking out down on their luck families and disabled veterans and booting them to the gutter. It could be ugly. Anaheim will have to tread very lightly with this one.

 

[Ismael Flores]

TP2000, Disney has publicly stated in the OC Register and through HoJo's that a "security" check will still exist on the west side of Harbor.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/disney-725945-harbor-bridge.html

>>
Q. Will visitors staying at nearby non-Disney hotels be forced to walk around to the Eastern Gateway transit facility on Manchester Avenue to get to the Disneyland Resort?

A. Guests staying in the hotels or motels on Harbor will be able to access the resort without going through the Eastern Gateway. The plans are still being developed but there will be another entrance with a security point for those entering on Harbor.<<

So what does that really mean. The educated guess, since the west side conversion hasn't been decided yet by Disney, is that a small Security check will be near the base of the western Bridge ramp. Those using the Toy Story new shuttle drop off, and those heading southbound on the sidewalk from Manchester will be the users of this gate, and will be designed for the much smaller expected traffic.

It's great to see you here Darkbeer, missed seeing you around. Always followed your writing and your smugmug photos.

You mentioned new toy story drop off, if I understood correctly it would be off harbor near the western area of the bridge. I'm just curious as to why they would consider that? Seems like the most logical thing would be to have toy story buses go north on clementine and into new transpiration hub especially since we are talking of quite a huge amount of buses.

Or

When referíng to Toy Story drop off is this just for cast members coming from that lot?

 

[Ismael Flores]

12 stories is pretty tall for that area. Almost as tall as the Worldmark condos two blocks west.

But the real story here for me is the Hampton Inn plan to replace the crap druggy motel on Katella next to the CM employee parking lot, the Arena Inn. That complex is some of the sketchiest and scariest motels on Katella, and the source of all sorts of police calls. It really brings the entire vibe and aesthetic of the area way down, especially as it's right after you exit the freeway and enter the Resort District.

Arena Inn, Katella Avenue - Not What The City Planners Had In Mind

A Friday Night Balcony Sociable at the Arena Inn. BYOB!

Here's the thing though... people live there. A lot of people. There's at least 50 "rooms", if not 75. And each room has at least one person living there, many rooms have entire families. Costa Mesa recently tried to shut down a similar drug motel where everyone was living long term and the Costa Mesa Police were being called there at least several times per day for crime, drugs, violence, prostitution, etc. And the Costa Mesa city council approved a plan to bulldoze the motel and turn it into upscale apartments and the residents screamed bloody murder and protested. It got ugly in the media.

If the Leftist protest groups get wind of this, they'll turn it into an ugly PR campaign of heartless "Disney" kicking out down on their luck families and disabled veterans and booting them to the gutter. It could be ugly. Anaheim will have to tread very lightly with this one.

Those motels in the corner of Katella and hamster are nasty even some seemed to be closed now. I wish Disney had been able to buy those pieces of property and bulldoze them and add to their property in at least that corner.

Speaking of land anyone know who owns the large empty piece of land that shows on google map on harbor across from Candy Cane Inn?
It's a pretty good size piece of land and would be useless for Disney since it doesn't connect to any other large property

 

[NobodyElse]

12 stories is pretty tall for that area. Almost as tall as the Worldmark condos two blocks west.

But the real story here for me is the Hampton Inn plan to replace the crap druggy motel on Katella next to the CM employee parking lot, the Arena Inn. That complex is some of the sketchiest and scariest motels on Katella, and the source of all sorts of police calls. It really brings the entire vibe and aesthetic of the area way down, especially as it's right after you exit the freeway and enter the Resort District.

Arena Inn, Katella Avenue - Not What The City Planners Had In Mind

A Friday Night Balcony Sociable at the Arena Inn. BYOB!

Here's the thing though... people live there. A lot of people. There's at least 50 "rooms", if not 75. And each room has at least one person living there, many rooms have entire families. Costa Mesa recently tried to shut down a similar drug motel where everyone was living long term and the Costa Mesa Police were being called there at least several times per day for crime, drugs, violence, prostitution, etc. And the Costa Mesa city council approved a plan to bulldoze the motel and turn it into upscale apartments and the residents screamed bloody murder and protested. It got ugly in the media.

If the Leftist protest groups get wind of this, they'll turn it into an ugly PR campaign of heartless "Disney" kicking out down on their luck families and disabled veterans and booting them to the gutter. It could be ugly. Anaheim will have to tread very lightly with this one.

I agree. Replacing Arena Inn would be one more step in the right direction to improve the image continuity of the "Resort District".

I wonder exactly how much of that area Hampton Inn has to redevelop? Right now (east to west) there is an empty lot, the existing motel, and Avis car rental. It would certainly be nice to take care of that whole contiguous area in one fell swoop.

 

[Ismael Flores]

I agree with the CM's getting the short end of the stick, but Disney wants to expand, not just with Star Wars Land, but future DCA expansion (Marvel?), and then a 4th Hotel that will take way a lot of current Downtown Disney Parking for guests. And then what to do with DtD guests and the new 4th Hotel guests, underground parking might be part of the Hotel project, but won't be enough to replace what is lost and the extra needed.

The Guests in a lot of ways pay the paychecks that CM's get.

And what about the Anaheim Convention Center Expansion and the need for the city to use the Toy Story Lot more often, that will force more CM's to give up their spaces in the Katella Lot.

So will the Anaheim Lot become a temporary home for those currently on the Ball Road lot (H-Lot), to allow construction of the Structure to be built?

We are looking into the future, but then Disney needs to get city permission for all these new CM parking spaces to be added/built, so Disney will have to work with the city to come up with an workable plan that addresses everyone, and yes, that does include CM's. But also many other groups.

I wonder if they have considered just turning the ground oversize parking south of the Mickey and fri new ibto another structure. Seams like that would be the perfect location to build a centralized parking garage structure for Castmembers on the western side and then once that is built also get going with the one in Ball road for the eastern side

 

[Ismael Flores]

You are looking towards the east, elevated over the Disneyland DCA Property.

Disney Way is the curved road on the left.

The Back road (Monorail going horizontally) is Clementine.

The gray less colorful area is the North east corner of Harbor and Katella.

The original plan of the Village Inn purchase (current vacant lot) was going to be a main Entrance to the Shopping mall.

The Grand Hotel would be where the Anaheim Plaza is now.

The building to the right of the Monorail Station is where the JW Marriott will be built.

And interesting to note, if you do look at the middle section, there is a lot of similarly between the drawing and the current AGW, starting with the Disney Way entrance including the stairs and the triangle building, the open plaza next to it, etc.

Hope that helps.

Can't seem to make the link work it takes me to the home page of watg am I missing something

 

[NobodyElse]

Can't seem to make the link work it takes me to the home page of watg am I missing something

They must have moved / removed that picture.

 

[Ismael Flores]

OK, my knowledge of AGW from experience.

The area where a possible bridge would go is currently an interior hallway with restrooms. Restrooms are on the north side of the hallway. When the area hosted the movie theater, the corner had Cinnabon store facing east. The south side is the wall for the parking structure. So the building, as far as I can tell, was designed to allow the addition of a bridge

I do remember that the original plans were for a bridge that would connect to an extension entry way for the mall in what is now the anaheim hotel. Some how I remember the hotel not wanting to sell and the mall was never able to get the needed entry way from Harbor. For a while this was one of the main reason used for the mall not being successful since all the foot traffic on harbor had no idea small existed a few years away

 

[DDLand]

Can't seem to make the link work it takes me to the home page of watg am I missing something

Bizarre. They yanked it. It looks like the site was updated, but I recovered some screenshots I had just deleted of the project:

Also of interest:
http://greenscreen.com/docs/Case Study Collection/greenscreen _Anaheim GardenWalk_case study.pdf

The 30 acre site [Gardenwalk] will eventually consist of the retail square footage, over 1 million square feet of parking, 387 timeshares and 3 themed hotels. Disney has announced plans to open an adjoining third Disneyland themed resort that will be based around a water park theme and additional plans include the extension of the monorail to service the adjoining properties.

Apparently the design is "based" on the hanging gardens of Babylon. A stretch if you ask me...

 

[NobodyElse]

A stretch if you ask me...

It seems like almost every aspect of this (AGW) project has been a stretch.

 

[Ismael Flores]

Bizarre. They yanked it. It looks like the site was updated, but I recovered some screenshots I had just deleted of the project:
View attachment 168944

View attachment 168945

Also of interest:
http://greenscreen.com/docs/Case Study Collection/greenscreen _Anaheim GardenWalk_case study.pdf

The 30 acre site [Gardenwalk] will eventually consist of the retail square footage, over 1 million square feet of parking, 387 timeshares and 3 themed hotels. Disney has announced plans to open an adjoining third Disneyland themed resort that will be based around a water park theme and additional plans include the extension of the monorail to service the adjoining properties.

Apparently the design is "based" on the hanging gardens of Babylon. A stretch if you ask me...

Ah yes I remember that art, that first pictures shows how crucial the demolition of the Anaheim hotel was when the mall was being developed. The art clearly shows a new hotel integrated into the mall and a large prominent wntry way to the shopping district from Harbor.
Not good for DTD business but would have really kept that mall alive and busy with all the foot traffic

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Not with the caliber of retail and dining options they ended up with. What made them think hoards of tourists were going to drop what they were doing at DLR to venture into that place to shop and eat at the same middle-of-the-road chains they had back home? Especially without a notable retail anchor. The whole plan was delusional madness.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Not with the caliber of retail and dining options they ended up with. What made them think hoards of tourists were going to drop what they were doing at DLR to venture into that place to shop and eat at the same middle-of-the-road chains they had back home? Especially without a notable retail anchor. The whole plan was delusional madness.

EVERY Restaurant on Katella Avenue is making a good profit, and that is the Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, PF Chang's, McCormick and Schmidt's, Roy's and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, so that main pedestrian sidewalk and nearby restaurants are happy and not complaining. Alas, the Disney Way entrance and getting people to walk through the mall itself has been a major issue though.

But I am always surprised to see the wait at Cheesecake Factory, they must be doing something right. (My favorite of the group is roy's, followed by PF Chang's and the Fire+ICE which is located in the middle of the mall, near where the House of Blues is going.

 

[Darkbeer1]

I should add, a key part of the Anaheim GardenWalk didn't get done, and that is the three Hotels originally planned on Clementine and the Time Share property. They would have been a major source of customers.

The JW Marriott should help, also the new Pumbaa Structure.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

EVERY Restaurant on Katella Avenue is making a good profit, and that is the Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, PF Chang's, McCormick and Schmidt's, Roy's and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, so that main pedestrian sidewalk and nearby restaurants are happy and not complaining.

Do you know for certain that they are making a good profit? Even so, Garden Walk continues to languish. Why? Because until HOB opens there's not a single compelling reason to for customers to look beyond what's visible from the street. Even then they are going to struggle unless they can get a tenant in there than can draw a daytime crowd.

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

12 stories is pretty tall for that area. Almost as tall as the Worldmark condos two blocks west.

But the real story here for me is the Hampton Inn plan to replace the crap druggy motel on Katella next to the CM employee parking lot, the Arena Inn. That complex is some of the sketchiest and scariest motels on Katella, and the source of all sorts of police calls. It really brings the entire vibe and aesthetic of the area way down, especially as it's right after you exit the freeway and enter the Resort District.

Arena Inn, Katella Avenue - Not What The City Planners Had In Mind

A Friday Night Balcony Sociable at the Arena Inn. BYOB!

Here's the thing though... people live there. A lot of people. There's at least 50 "rooms", if not 75. And each room has at least one person living there, many rooms have entire families. Costa Mesa recently tried to shut down a similar drug motel where everyone was living long term and the Costa Mesa Police were being called there at least several times per day for crime, drugs, violence, prostitution, etc. And the Costa Mesa city council approved a plan to bulldoze the motel and turn it into upscale apartments and the residents screamed bloody murder and protested. It got ugly in the media.

If the Leftist protest groups get wind of this, they'll turn it into an ugly PR campaign of heartless "Disney" kicking out down on their luck families and disabled veterans and booting them to the gutter. It could be ugly. Anaheim will have to tread very lightly with this one.

It's not just a "druggy motel". That's an oversimplification of layers of social problems. Historically, the area to the East and South of the CM lot has had many problems, including drug and gang activity. But the Arena Motel and the surrounding apartments (which have improved) were also home to many working people and families at the bottom of the food chain. I have known CMs who lived at the Arena and other low-end properties like it BECAUSE THEY HAD NOWHERE ELSE TO GO! One was a young transgender man who had been disowned by his family. He and a roommate from Custodial lived in one of those rooms for several months before saving up and moving on to better housing. This is because Disney pays less than a living wage, even for many union workers.

Are there drugs and prostitution and other criminal activity taking place in low-end properties like this? Of course. But they are a symptom of broader problems. Displacing all those people without addressing the underlying problems is irresponsible for the community. This is not merely a matter of "Leftist protest groups" chiming in. The Arena Motel is a blight. But it's a symptom, not the cause. Reforming areas like this is not simply a matter of bulldozing the "Roach Motel". You can't just pave over these problems because they are connected to the very fabric of the community.

I object to your oversimplification. These are human beings. No matter how many bad choices, unfortunate circumstances, or outright criminal behavior, they are people. I'm not excusing or defending criminal activity. But you can't paint these residents with such a broad brush.

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

Do you know for certain that they are making a good profit? Even so, Garden Walk continues to languish. Why? Because until HOB opens there's not a single compelling reason to for customers to look beyond what's visible from the street. Even then they are going to struggle unless they can get a tenant in there than can draw a daytime crowd.

GardenWalk and its predecessor was designed to have several connected upscale hotels. The challenge now will be to attract retail tenants after the JW Marriott and the Harbor Bl. property open. GW has the smell of decay about it. Filling the empty storefronts will be a challenge for their sales team. I predict a facelift and rebranding within a couple of years.