Disney Wins Anaheim Condo Wars

I think there's enough unsold properties in SoCal right now as it is...

Final Disneyland condo plan pulled

By JACOB ADELMAN
Business Week

LOS ANGELES
A developer has withdrawn its proposal for a condo-hotel complex close to Disneyland, effectively ending a long-running political battle over whether homes should be built in the theme park area, an Anaheim city official said Monday.

Newport Beach-based Renaissance Pacific Properties LLC last week pulled its plan to build 191 condominiums and a 102-room hotel on a 4.8-acre site by a road leading to the theme park complex, planning director Sheri Vander Dussen said.

"We believe the project would have been a positive addition to the Anaheim resort, but timing issues do not allow us to move forward at this time," Steve Sheldon, a consultant for the developer, told the Orange County Register.

The company might consider another plan for the property, Sheldon said.
A message left Monday for Renaissance principal Michael Capaldi by the Associated Press was not immediately returned.

Renaissance was the last of three developers that had planned to build residential units within the city's 2.2-square mile resort district. Walt Disney Co. officials opposed the move, arguing that housing would interfere with the area's lucrative focus on tourism.

Earlier this month, developer Urban West Strategies dropped its plans to build a mixed-use project with 449 condos earlier this month, De Vander Dussen said.

Another developer, SunCal Cos., abandoned its plans to build about 1,500 homes in the area last year, citing a conflict with the family that owned the land, she said.

Starting in June, voters will have to approve all housing proposals in the resort area thanks to an initiative championed by Disney and adopted by the city council.