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Susana Barrios
From:Tannis Soto <tannissoto@sbcglobal.net>
Sent:Monday, March 2, 2026 7:26 PM
To:Public Comment; Ashleigh Aitken; Carlos A. Leon; Ryan Balius; Natalie Rubalcava;
Norma C. Kurtz; Kristen Maahs; Natalie Meeks
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] Please Vote NO on the Shea/Festival Center apartments - it is
unconscionable to allow
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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 department in
collaboration with Cal Trans and the Highway Patrol consider coming up with a plan in the event of a
catastrophic fire event to close down access 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. Furthermore, given 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
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onto the 91 freeway faster thus getting people 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
138 S. Leandro Street
Anaheim, California 92807
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