Item 4 - A. Phelps
Bridgette Bambrick
From:Andrea Phelps <andreap80@yahoo.com>
Sent:Monday, November
To:Planning Commission
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] Festival center project application 2023-00043
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My name is Andrea Phelps and I urge the planning commission not to recommend the project
at the festival center to move forward as it is described in the project application.
The project is planned for one of the two major shopping centers in the area, a major hub of
commerce as well as civic activities with a police station, library and community center
directly across the street. The area is already a complete traffic nightmare during am and pm
commute times due to increased traffic to the center during evening hours and commuters
using Serrano and Santa Ana Canyon road as a bypass for the 91/57 interchange.
The traffic problem begins all the way in the city of orange at Cannon street where cars line
the road to turn onto Serrano and speed all the way down Serrano. The city decided to install
a road diet on Serrano and substantially narrowed the lanes. This road diet has done little to
deter the commuters or the speeding vehicles and now driving Serrano feels more dangerous
than even because there is no longer a safe cushion between vehicles. The city of Orange
also added an additional right turn lane from cannon to serrano last year, which allows for
double the amount of vehicles to race down serrano during peak times. During the few times
I have braved driving around the festival center in the afternoon and evening I have found a
similar situation on Santa ana canyon beginning at the festival center. It has taken me up two
four signal rotations to turn onto weir from santa ana canyon.
It turns out that the find your way evacuation plan would instruct the residents at the festival
center to evacuate to that same intersection heading east. Evacuation to the east during a
fire would almost never be a viable option. Fires in district six are historically wind driven due
to santa ana winds and come from the east and move west and south. This means that all
400+ units, lets conservatively say around 650 additional people/vehicles would be
evacuating to the west, adding to the already jammed santa ana canyon road.
District six is not in opposition to new housing, it just needs to be done responsibly. I urge
you to consider the recommendation of substantially fewer units on the site so the quality of
life of both the potential festival center residents and the other residents of Anaheim are not
adversely affected.
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Thank you
Andrea Phelps
Sent from my iPhone
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