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Date:2/2/2026 7:22:19 PM
From:"Heidi Ferris"
To:"Public Comment" publiccomment@anaheim.net, "Ashleigh Aitken" AAitken@anaheim.net, "Carlos A. Leon" CLeon@anaheim.net, "Ryan Balius" RBalius@anaheim.net, "Natalie Rubalcava"
NRubalcava@anaheim.net, "Norma C. Kurtz" NKurtz@anaheim.net, "Kristen Maahs" KMaahs@anaheim.net, "Natalie Meeks" NMeeks@anaheim.net
Subject:[EXTERNAL] Please!!! vote NO on the Shea/Festival Center apartments – It's a safety issue
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Dear Council Member,
I am writing to you as a resident of Running Springs Elementry school district to ask you to please vote "No" on the proposed apartments at the Anaheim Hills Festival Center. I lived here during the Canyon Fire 2 in 2017 when we had to evacuate within an hour, pick up my children from school where embers were catching our homes on fire and 6 of our neighbors lost their homes. Also the 2008 fire where I was in the hospital having my child with no home to go too be we were evacuated.
My neighbors had to break into our home to save our dogs and sat on Weir Canyon for 6 hours with fire surrounding them.
The thought of adding hundreds of new apartments and about 1000+ more people to that exact same escape route is terrifying to ALL of us!!!!
The reports for this project say that adding these cars will "only" add about 7 minutes to the evacuation time. But when you're already stuck for three hours and the fire is moving toward you, 7 minutes is a lifetime. We don't have extra roads or "secret" ways out of the Hills; we all end up on the same few lanes. Adding more people to a neighborhood that is already a bottleneck during a fire just feels like a tragedy waiting to happen.
Serrano has already became a mini highway, with Corona residents using our neighborhood as a highway connecting to the 91.
I understand that the city needs housing, but it shouldn't be built in a place where people are already struggling to get out safely. Please don't make an existing danger even worse just for a new development. We are asking you to prioritize the lives and safety of the people who already live here and pay taxes here.
Sincerely,
Heidi Ferris
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