Anaheim Plans To Remake Its Sports District Into Highrise Urban Village

"The city wants to create a dense downtown near Angel Stadium and the Honda Center, an area now dominated by industrial facilities and office parks. Despite the sour real estate market, city leaders say the demand for housing in Anaheim is there.

Yet some developers in the Platinum Triangle have already decided to hold off building until the market improves. Lennar Corp. recently told the city it would slow construction on the centerpiece of the Platinum Triangle, A-Town -- planned to contain 2,700 condos, lofts and townhomes."

"The City Council approved the zoning change at its meeting Tuesday night (Dec. 11) by a vote of 4 to 1... The latest vision for the 820-acre Platinum Triangle comes just three years after the council rezoned a tired industrial district...in hopes of creating an urban village of high-rise buildings, lofts, shops and restaurants. More than a dozen residential projects have already been approved, and one, the Stadium Lofts condos, has been completed."

"I realize this kind of density is a foreign concept to a lot of people around here, but we've got to move beyond that. We're no longer living in the 1950s in Anaheim. We have to establish new paradigms", said Councilman Bob Hernandez.

"Most of the high-rise residential towers and mid-level townhomes and lofts in the Platinum Triangle will be linked by pedestrian-friendly avenues where residents and tourists can eat and shop or attend a ball game or hockey match at Angel Stadium or the Honda Center. City officials hope their emerging urban village can give suburban Orange County what it has lacked -- a downtown with a vibrant street scene."

"It won't be a Chicago or New York, but it'll almost be a city unto itself," Kring said. "I see it as a high-energy, urbanized place. It will be very attractive to people who are tired of spending hours on the freeway and tired of caring for a yard", said Councilwoman Lucille Kring.

Thanks to Steve Levy