I’ve been amused lately by the news out of Anaheim about the battle between developers, Disney and the city. Seems how someone wants to develop property in what was designated by the City as “the Anaheim Resort District”. And among those plans included “low-cost” housing. The only bug was that when the City established the zoning for the Resort District, low-cost housing was not one of the allowable uses.

Since then, Disney, the developers and the City all have spun the proposed project their own ways and gone back and forth in the press. And then this week, the City Council voted in favor of the project. Which will only lead to Disney getting it’s lawyers ready for more days in court, real soon.

Anaheim is like many cities in that it needed a real clear sense of direction it it’s planning processes. Far too often, it’s build, build, build, if only to increase and or maximize the local tax revenues. Not always a bad thing, but the winds of change have led more municipalities to slow down and take things at a more measured pace.

And that’s somewhat the story in Anaheim as well. Over the years, Disney has worked with the City to plan for growth and be a part of it’s community. Went pretty well, too.  Or at least that’s how it appeared.

Check out some of these documents online. Admittedly, some of them are fairly dry. But you can get some ideas of what some people at Disney had in mind for the next few decades.

One of my favorites is this PDF of the city and how things are zoned from 2004. It’s a fairly hefty file, but you do see how the Anaheim Resort district mixes with the rest of the City.

Another voluminous document online is the Disneyland Resort Environmental Impact Report or EIR #311. You get an idea of what Disney produced to give the City a head start on planning standards for the 21st century and then some. And you get a glimpse of what Disney had in mind for some of the Westcot project, too.

For example, this image from page 4-25 shows how the route of the Monorail would have gone through the new park and made a new station stop at Disneyland’s main entrance.

Sure, there are a lot of “what if’s” in these documents, but it’s somewhat interesting to check out the details. A few treasures like this are just there to be found.

One thing is certain. Disney, the City of Anaheim and the developer of this “low-cost” housing have even more interesting times to come. Including more than a few court dates...