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Date:1/11/2026 8:42:58 AM
From:"Tannis Soto"
To:"Public Comment" publiccomment@anaheim.net
Subject:[EXTERNAL] Opposition to Festival Center's proposed apartment building - Public Safe ty and Evacuation Concerns
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Dear Mayor Ashleigh Aitken and City Council Members,
I write to you all to express my opposition to the proposed Festival Center project as I am deeply concerned about the ramifications of the project
due to public safety and evacuation concerns.
In light of what occurred in the catastrophic and devastating Pacific Palisades fire I believe the only thing that prevented a similar fire occurring in
Anaheim Hills is that there was not a shift in the winds. Plain and simple......we were lucky last time. With the gridlock that happened the last time
we had a fire in Anaheim Hills if you add hundreds of more people and their cars to a similar situation the time frame for evacuating puts at risk
lives significantly more especially if we were to experience winds similar to what happened in the Palisades. This area already has experienced
fires which proved there is limited ingress and egress making evacuation a known problem.
Approving a major new development without a proven, effective evacuation plan places us residents at increased risk. The safety of the residents
of Anaheim Hills must be paramount to allowing a new apartment development to be built.
I ask that you all deny the approval of the Festival Center's proposed building of apartments or alternatively delay it until evacuation and
emergency access issues are fully resolved so as to ensure the safety of all of us in Anaheim Hills.
I ask that the owners of the property look beyond and consider building other services for the community on that property. We don't need more
housing up here. We could use more restaurants and services. We no longer have a theatre in Anaheim Hills since the Festival Theatre and
Cinema City theatres closed. We miss the theatres.
Independently from expressing my above concerns, I want to propose that the planning departme nt in collaboration with Cal Trans
and the Highway Patrol consider coming up with a plan in the event of a catastrophic fire e ve nt to close down acce ss to the 91
freeway at outlying areas and block certain entrances to the freeway so that only entrances in Anaheim Hills or Yorba Linda would
be open so as to allow residents to flee the area in a significantly shorter amount of time . Furthe rmore , give n the close proximity of
Santa Ana Canyon Road and the 91 Fwy additional access points from Santa Ana Canyon Road onto the 91 Fwy could be planned
and built so as to be opened up as needed to allow vehicles to get onto the 91 freeway faste r thus ge tting pe ople away from any fire
faster. I believe this should be done whether or not the proposed project goes forward of not.
Thank you for your service to our community.
Peace,
Tannis Dunbar-Soto