31 (031)
Susana Barrios
From:Shelly R <shelly.n.robbins@gmail.com>
Sent:Friday,
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] Deer Canyon Proposal Concern Re: Vote on 10/29/24
Attachments:20241018_160917.heic; Screenshot_20241025_133622_Photos.jpg
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Hello City Council Members,
I hope you are doing well. I want to take the time to email you today to address a
critical safety concern regarding Salt Development’s Deer Canyon Development proposal
and am urging you to Vote No on this development proposal due to the significant safety
risks it’s build would place on the members of the city that lives here and also bring light
to current deficits in our city’s infrastructure.
I have been a resident of Anaheim Hills for the past 37 years living on Kennedy Rd
(Evac Zone 8) and have experienced many of the fires that have come through our area
over the years and have experienced the challenges faced during those evacuations. I am
opposed to the project for the following reasons:
1. A lack of infrastructure to accommodate current traffic & add’l traffic volumes
2. And an increased Safety Risk posed during fire evacuations.
Over the years, we have seen our community expand and add some truly beautiful
and functional builds. However, over the past 5-10 years, we have seen a significant
growth in traffic in our area. As there has been massive expansions in Corona, Riverside,
and IE housing we have come to see a huge infrastructure problem developing. The 91E
fwy can no longer accommodate the level of traffic going through it to get to those cities.
As housing has expanded we have seen limited expansion of freeway since 1986 to
accommodate the add’l traffic aside from maybe 1-2 possible lanes. Over those last 5-10
years, citizens have been shifting from taking the fwy all the way into Corona to utilizing
multiple streets in Anaheim Hills as a way to bypass traffic and getting back on at Weir
Canyon Rd. and Gypsum Canyon. You may be wondering how this ties into the Anaheim
Hills community and why this has created a concern. Since expansion, we have seen a
dramatic increase in cars using (2) main access points through Anaheim Hills to bypass
this traffic: 1) A majority of drivers are taking Jamboree and Santiago Canyon Rd, which
then lets out onto Cannon, where they finish on Serrano Ave, then either entering the 91E
from Weir Canyon or Gypsum Canyon. 2) The 2nd main artery used is taking Santa Ana
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Canyon Rd down to Weir Canyon or Gypsum Canyon. With both of these main routes
many drivers are breaking off into other Anaheim Hills main streets such as: Imperial Hwy
and Nohl Ranch Rd. We’ve seen an increase in daily commutes by the thousands due to
infrastructure not expanding as developments have been created. And while this is not
necessarily something Anaheim can fix, it does pose a significant risk to residents during
fires in an already fire prone area as we already don’t currently have the infrastructure to
accommodate the current level of traffic in our area, let alone during a fire, and not
including the add’l vehicles that would be added to Santa Ana Canyon with this
development.
District 6 of Anaheim poses a unique fire risk that isn’t posed in other Districts within
Anaheim. Our specific area’s topography creates a wind channel and multiple times
throughout the year we get Santa Ana Wind conditions with wind speeds routinely
exceeding 40 mph, which puts our area at an increased risk of fire and fire severity. Due to
the hilly nature of our District, we also pose challenges to extinguishing fires. In attending
several of the city council meetings regarding this project, I have heard from countless
residents whose experiences echoed that of my own. Experiences of being unable to
evacuate during fires, being stuck in gridlocked traffic for 2+ hours, without the necessary
infrastructure to evacuate safely. We’ve heard about residents about fire hydrants coming
up dry during fires and how fire teams had to pull from pools and our reservoir in an
attempt to battle those fires, a reservoir which at this time is at an extremely low water
level. We learned about how our hilly terrain made air drops significantly less effective
and how it also made it a challenge for our fire teams on the ground to access these fires.
Thus, this creating an inefficient means for extinguishing fires because both our air and
land teams are both significantly negatively impacted in efficiency due to the topography.
I understand that the City of Anaheim is under requirement to build housing due to state
mandates and am in no way of the nimby mindset, but builds must be done responsibly
with proper planning and by making changes to infrastructure prior to builds. District 6
poses a unique challenge that other districts in Anaheim do not pose which make it at a
much hire risk for fires (and large ones) as we sit up against several massive hilly areas
that have caught on fire numerous times in the past.
When going over Evac plans, the Know Your Way Program was a great idea;
however, they are outdated and haven’t been updated since 2018 despite heavy increase
to street traffic volumes and new builds. They also don’t account for add’l traffic from
additionally proposed projects such as the (Festival Shopping Center ~477 apartments &
Bryant Ranch ~320 apartments) nor does it account for half of deer canyon residents
which would add an add’l 1,594 vehicles to the only escape route that zones 1, 2,8, & 9
have. Developers believe the idea that multiple of these zones on fire would never happen
and so we wouldn’t need to worry about evacuating multiple zones at once, but this just
isn’t true. During Canyon Fire 2 we saw both Zones 1 & 2, which are our (2) highest risk
factor zones, on fire at the same simultaneously and our current evac plans don’t
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accommodate for that. They accommodate for ideal conditions, and (1) zone at a time,
and (1) street at a time. Additionally, current evac plans would force half of those drivers
to drive headfirst into the direction of the oncoming fire. During Canyon Fire 2, zones 1 & 2
both on fire, streets were gridlocked trying to evacuate and residents couldn’t escape with
fire reaching the center divider of Santa Ana Canyon Rd. My family and many other
families in Zone 8 and those stuck on Santa Ana Canyon next to smaller fires were lucky
that a sudden change in wind direction came. That changed the direction of the fire into
Yorba Linda, saving many of us, but it could very easily could have easily been
catastrophic. We were lucky in that instance, but it’s not a matter of IF, but WHEN will the
next fire be and how we will handle it. Zones 1 & 2 have already had several incidents of
major fires so it really isn’t a hypothetical that we need to better plan and create
infrastructure for. While Bryant Ranch is technically Yorba Linda and not Anaheim Hills, I
brought it up because during Canyon Fire 2 when the fire moved through Yorba Linda it
impacted the major street (Weir Canyon Rd) that Zones 1,2,8, & 9 would need to use in
order to evacuate. If the Deer Canyon Proposal, Festival Shopping Center by Shea
Apartments, and Bryant Canyon apartment proposals are also approved that is add’l
traffic impacting our evacuation routes, which is already over capacity with the current
level of traffic that we have in the area. That is (3) apartment complexes all within a 5 mile
distance of each other, all utilizing the same streets. Attached I have included a google
link to pics & videos of how busy our streets are to give a better perspective of what traffic
looks like in our area. Those traffic levels weren’t existent during our previous fires. Now
just imagine this current level of traffic, and the traffic from the add’l build proposals in
the face of the next fire. We are sitting ducks! Please help us. We desperately need new
infrastructure and updates to the Know Your Way plan. Our streets can’t currently
accommodate the level of traffic we have now. I ask that you please listen to the concerns
of the many residents, and utilize your vote to act on behalf of the citizens and not
corporate greed. Your duty is to the people of the city and the safety of them. I urge that
you please make that the priority and not create an even more unsafe environment.
Please Vote NO on the Deer Canyon Development.
Google Link to Pics & Videos of Traffic Congestion
Sincerely,
Shelly Robbins
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