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Date:2/24/2026 8:07:18 PM
From:"Dean Gaynor"
To:"Public Comment" publiccomment@anaheim.net
Subject:[EXTERNAL] Fw: Festival Re-Zoning to allow Multi Family Housing Project
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----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Dean Gaynor <
To: publiccomments@anaheim.net <publiccomments@anaheim.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 06:35:31 PM PST
Subject: Festival Re-Zoning to allow Multi Family Housing Project
This is not about rich people in District 6 not wanting Multi Family in our area. I have lived in in District 6 for 32-years and: 1) W e aren't
rich, we live paycheck to paycheck like the rest of our neighbors, 2) W e are fine with putting more multi family in district 6 if we need it.
Just put it on the other side of Santa Ana Canyon and of the 91 freeway where people have multiple s treets to use to evac uate in an
emergency. THIS IS STRICTLY ABOUT LIFE AND SAFETY!
The Hills will catch fire again, it’s just a question of when.
W e are just asking our City Council to not be irresponsible with our lives and the lives of thes e potential new families by pac king more
families and cars into this one area that is land locked on 3 sides by hills that catch fire and loc ked off on the remaining side by Santa
Ana Canyon which isn’t equipped to handle the amount of normal traffic it gets and certainly c an’t handle s afe evacuations .
Please be responsible before putting any more families at risk and putting the existing families in this little land locked area at greater risk
by first fixing the infrastructure. If you want to rezone to allow dense multi family on this side of Santa Ana Canyon, widen Santa Ana
Canyon. Or, give us actual, functional, over passes. They are spending millions in Los Angeles to give the wild life an overpass for their
safety. I love our Mountain Lion populatin and am glad they are doing this, but don't your constituents des erve at least as muc h before
you vote to make their situation go from extremely unsafe to unimaginably unsafe? Also why not firs t extend W eir Canyon towards
Orange and Irive. W e have been told for years years it was going to continue, but it still deadends not allowing us an alternate route to
possible safety. Do more than just the "know Your W ay Plan" to cut down on our current 3+ hour evacuation times before putting
another 1,000 estimated cars in this small pocket!
W e appreciate the work on the ”Know Your W ay” plan and we will be it's greatest supporters , but let’s be realistic - it’s not enough to
throw that many more families and cars into this already unsafe current situation.
And commercial/retail usage AS IT IS APPROPRIATELY CURRENTLY ZONED FOR is not the sam e as 1,000+ more cars c rammed
into a parking structure for residential housing when trying to get human lives out safely. Dense res idential housing in this s mall pocket
will make it worse than it would be for any commercial retail use that may go into the theater s pac e. People aren't shopping or going to
appointments in festival center during wildfires. Those of us who live here know, THAT IS NOT W HAT HAPPENS IN OUR COMMUNITY!
W HEN THE W INDS PICK UP AND ESPECIALLY WHEN A FIRE STARTS THERE W ON’T be 1,000 CARS PARKED THERE TO USE
W HATEVER PERMITTED USE MAY GO IN W HERE THE THEATER IS. W E DO KNOW THOUGH THAT UNDER THOSE
CONDITIONS THE OCCUPANTS OF THOSE ESTIMATED 1,000 Additional cars will be there pac ked in their new propos ed parking
structure with their new families scouring media to find out if they need to evacuate and then dis c overing what we all know who already
live here, that they can’t get out in any safe, reasonable amount of time.
Not asking our representatives to take any drastic measures - Just asking them to vote NOT to c hange the z oning. Leave it as it is and
vote no on this proposal. How will you live with yourselves if people burn in their cars trying to flee like they did on Maui and you
personally voted to make evacuations more impacted?
My wife and I and our neighbors have spoke before, but it is worth repeating here. W e live on Altair Lane in the housing track above
Target. One of the times were were evacuated, I believe it was during the 2017 fire, just trying to go from our hous e, out our trac k, taking
Bauer Road to Roosevelt (next to Festival) trying to get to Santa Ana Canyon (a route that Google s ays takes 3 minutes in traffic), was
one we couldn't even complete because Santa Ana Canyon was so impacted due to the evacuation. It took us 2.5 hours jus t to get to the
driveway going into Festival. W e jumped the center median, along with other neighbors as spot fires were popping up along the street
and pulled into festival after 2.5 hours hoping that if the winds picked up and the fire headed our way we wouldn't burn to death or die
from smoke inhilation if we parked in the middle of the asphalt of the shopping center. W e are glad to have the Know Your W ay Plan to
cut down any amount of time off our evacuation, but it is simply not enough given how long it took then to make anyone feel that another
1,000+ residential cars can safely be added to the mix when when human life is on the line and certainly not enough for you to feel
comfortable approving this project.
I would be happy to talk further with any of you who want to know what the evacutation situation really is rather than going off of an
obviously flawed traffic model that I can assure you does not reflect the reality that we all live in this sm all poc ket.
Sincerely,
Dean Gaynor