For 52 years, the Walt Disney Co has called Disneyland, its Southern California theme park, "the happiest place on earth."
But now Disney is angry that the city of Anaheim, where the park is based, has approved plans for 1,500 apartments on a site zoned for tourist facilities.
In February, Disney sued the city, hoping to force it to abandon the decision permitting the project. The development would have 225 subsidized units, and advocates of affordable housing are accusing Disney of turning its back on low-income residents, including many of its own employees.
Disney argues that it is simply trying to make Anaheim an attractive place for tourists. In the 1950s, Walt Disney, the company's founder, bought 98.7 hectares in Anaheim, for which he paid about US$11,000 a hectare. By the time the park opened, in 1955, Disney wished it had bought more.
In fact, Disneyland's success spawned thousands of acres of development around the park including some that the company found tacky. The disputes that arose have forced Anaheim to take sides, and it has almost always taken Disney's.
But the relationship between Anaheim and its largest employer has become strained over the planned housing, on a 10.5-hectare site that now holds a trailer park.
Theresa Medina, an Anaheim resident, was visiting relatives at the trailer park this month. She said that one-bedroom apartments in Anaheim can cost US$1,400 a month, and that many landlords won't rent to large families. The prices and the occupancy restrictions cause many workers to commute long distances, she said.
Lorri Galloway, one of three on the five-member Anaheim City Council who voted in favor of the housing project, said, "Research shows that we have a need in and around the resort area for 27,000 units of affordable housing."
By trying to block some of that housing, she said, Disney is showing "complete disregard for the workers who make the resorts so successful."
But Rob Doughty, a spokesman for the Disneyland Resort, said the goal was simply to keep housing out of an area zoned for resort development in 1994.
Once the special zoning district was created, "the state and federal governments invested billions of dollars to clean it up," he said.
Disney and others then began building lavish facilities, including Disney's 745-room Grand Californian Hotel and Spa, which opened in 2001.
"And now they want to throw all that away," he said, referring to the City Council.
Doughty added that "companies like Marriott and Disney and Hilton make their investment decisions on what they assume the zoning is going to be."
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, who voted against the plan, said he understood the frustration that led Disney to file a lawsuit: "I certainly think they have a legal right to protect their interests."
"No one contemplated that three members of the City Council would turn their back on that engine of economic development within the city," he said.
The controversy began when the SunCal Co, a developer based in nearby Irvine, signed a contract to buy 10.5 hectares and announced plans to build 1,300 condominiums and 225 rental units on the site.
Frank Elfend, a project manager for SunCal, said the idea for affordable housing came about in consultation with the city.
"Whenever you do a big project, you talk to the community about what their needs are," he said. "In Anaheim, the priority was affordable housing."
SunCal's approach won the support of several City Council members. The council approved the project in February, leading Disney to file its first lawsuit ever against the city.
Late last month, at the end of a contentious six-hour public hearing, the City Council voted 3-2 to reaffirm its support for the housing project, ensuring that the litigation would continue.
Pringle, who opposed the new housing, said that Anaheim was building at least as much affordable housing as any other city in Orange County, and that it would build more when it found appropriate sites.
Doughty said that hotels and restaurants, which operate around the clock, are incompatible with permanent housing.
"It doesn't matter that it's low-income housing," he said, explaining that Disney objects to any new housing in the resort area.
Indeed, Disney has recently objected to another proposed project, called Parc Anaheim, at the edge of the resort area.
The SunCal site is about 1.6km from the Magic Kingdom and 0.80km from Disney's California Adventure, which opened in 2001.
But it is directly opposite an 35.6 hectare plot on which Disney is considering building a third park, which is likely to include boutique attractions. Doughty confirmed that the third park was a possibility, but said it would probably not be announced this year.
Cynthia Ward, an architectural historian who lives in Anaheim, said that "there is essentially no place left to live in Orange County for people with extremely low-income jobs," but that, even so, the resort area should be protected.
"Yes, we need affordable housing," she said, "but it doesn't have to be on that site."
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