Residents of Anaheim, California, are unhappy with announced plans for Disneyland to acquire several city-owned roads and cut off local traffic as part of its park expansion plans.
According to , Disney was asked by the city to sell several roads adjacent to the existing park grounds, including a street named Magic Way. KTLA-TV.
But residents claim they are using the 1,150-foot stretch of road on the west side of the resort to bypass the city’s busy roads and access Highway 5.
Residents are furious that Disney intends to close the road to nearly all traffic and make it a pedestrian-only path for hotel and parking lot users to access the park.
“I love Magicway,” resident Randy Lewis said at a recent meeting at City Hall. “I don’t like the idea of closing Magic Way. It’s a great way for residents to avoid a lot of traffic.”
However, Disney claims that a traffic study of road usage found that “99 percent” of road traffic was Disney-related.
“Of the 11,153 vehicles that pass through the Magic Way each day, 11,053 depart from or arrive at Disney properties,” said Disney consultant Joe Haupt. “He has less than 100 non-Disney users.”
“There will still be a few cars on that road and it will still be open for emergency vehicles, but it won’t be the same street that it is today,” added Erin Ryan, a spokeswoman for the city of Anaheim.
The park wants to offer the city a one-time payment of $40 million to take over ownership of Magic Way, Hotel Way and portions of Clementine Street.
Disney has not announced a construction schedule for the expansion in the area that includes Magic Way Street.
The City Planning Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal on March 11, and the full City Council is scheduled to take up the proposal in May.
The park’s expansion plans come on the heels of a fee increase, even though attendance fell by nearly 21 percent last year.
The entertainment giant last year raised prices at both Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California.
Disneyland prices are rise rapidly Across nearly all ticket levels, single-day and multi-day tickets are increasing between 4% and 15.7%, according to . hollywood reporter. The price of the “Magic Key” annual pass will increase by 3% to 21%.
Meanwhile, annual pass prices at Disney World have increased to between $40 and $50.
The price increase follows reports last year that Disney park attendance numbers had a disappointing summer, with one travel company tracking Disney World line times reporting said it was one of the slowest in nearly a decade.
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