31 (002)
Susana Barrios
From:Rick Pollgreen <pollgreen@hotmail.com>
Sent:Thursday, October
To:Public Comment
Cc:Nicholas J. Taylor
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] My comments for 10/29/24 city council meeting
Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open
attachments unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the message.
Hi city council.
This email is to voice my strong opposition to the proposed Deer Canyon development by SALT.
First of all let me share my utter astonishment at what transpired on September 30th at the Anaheim
Planning Commission public meeting.
After a lot of hard work, our/your Anaheim staff put together a report and recommended DENIAL of this
Deer Canyon development. The biggest takeaway was one of public safety! Our current situation is that
our roads are overloaded already so adding in more cars and traffic will just be too much!
One suggestion was to work on road/infrastructure upgrades first! Then talk about adding in more traffic
and housing. Fairmont connector being one possibility.
Then, the Anaheim fire Department spoke and also concurred with staff and recommended DENIAL.
Then, the Anaheim Police Department spoke and also concurred with staff and recommended DENIAL.
The SALT developer spoke and claimed they had many local residents in support of them but they didn’t
come to the meeting as they were scared. Wow! What an outright lie!
????. These guys have been nothing
but underhanded in EVERYTHING they do! They sent out texts to local residents seeming to be from SAVE
DEER CANYON people but it really was them and wanted support! This might be how they had
“supporters”. They were duped! They even went out and poached
websites. SAVEDEERCANYON.com sends users to https://hillspreserve.com/ which is SALT’s
website!
????
When SAVEDEERCANYON.org was the original one and is OPPOSED to SALT!
The fact they have stopped to such tactics tells me they are not a good fit for our city! They should go
somewhere else imho.
And then, about 100 local residents came forward to share their fire evacuation horror stories and traffic
and safety concerns. Also in opposition obviously.
So then, after all that, the PC rather quickly voted to APPROVE the project! Unbelievable! No discussion
about why they felt just fine with ignoring all the evidence and previous recommendations. Nothing!
????
????
????
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It seemed pretty obvious they had their minds up before the meeting and that was that!
The PC should have at least presented some sort of explanation for their vote!
And since they are appointed and not elected officials, we the people have no recourse with them.
It has also been pointed out to me that Anaheim does not have an approved housing element in place
and thus we are open to Builders Remedy applications. Any idea when the state might approve our
plan? I don’t know those details so will rely on your expertise.
Now I know that “change” is a fact of life. But I am pretty sure the people that conceived Anaheim Hills
and put the master plan in place did so with a certain aesthetic in mind. And it has pretty much remained
as planned all these years. This development is a major Re-characterization of this area. Nobody that
bought a home in this planned community wants to live amongst a bunch of high rise apartments! That is
not the vibe of this community. This is a Family oriented community and adding these apartments will
not elevate our community as they claim, but really will destroy the basic fabric of the area. It also is not
inline with the city’s housing element as approved by the city council.
I totally understand if this high end apartment development was added into a blighted area in a city, it
could actually raise the quality of life for the neighborhood. But in this area, that is not the case. This
development does not fit the character of this area. And actually forever drastically changes the
character of this community!
One last rant. The developers even have the nerve to claim they will be making the area safer for the
existing residents due to their building materials and fire hydrant upgrades! Well, that claim is ludicrous
as proven by the 25 minutes additional evacuation time that has been postulated in the case of a
wildfire. If they were to make the hydrant upgrades and then not build anything I would agree.
???????
It is not too late to do the right thing!
I urge you to VOTE NO on this development!
Thanks,
Concerned resident,
Rick Pollgreen
Anaheim CA. 92807
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