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Susana Barrios
From: David Walser <dewalser@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 3, 2026 11:46 AM
To: Ashleigh Aitken <AAitken@anaheim.net>; Carlos A. Leon <CLeon@anaheim.net>; Natalie Meeks
<NMeeks@anaheim.net>; Natalie Rubalcava <NRubalcava@anaheim.net>; Ryan Balius <RBalius@anaheim.net>; Kristen
Maahs <KMaahs@anaheim.net>; Norma C. Kurtz <NKurtz@anaheim.net>
Cc: Public Comment <publiccomment@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 35 year resident of Anaheim Hills 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, and while I was in Napa County trying to figure out how to leave
the valley fire area, driving back to Anaheim was tense while receiving phone calls
asking if I knew what was happening in Anaheim Hills.
The thought of adding hundreds of new apartments and about 1000+ more people to the
escape routes is terrifying to those of us who have actually been in that situation.
Normal weekday rush hour traffic lasts for hours and it would be impossible to think of
adding a wildfire evacuation process to the already overburdened escape routes.
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.
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,
David Walser
391 S Henning Way
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