The Disneyland Resort will enhance pedestrian access to the resort from its west side as part of its proposal to take over Magic Way, resort officials said today.
As part of its DisneylandForward land-use proposal, Disney has proposed that it pay the City of Anaheim to abandon some areas within the resort’s boundaries that are now designated for use as city streets.
The biggest one of those is Magic Way, which runs to the south of the Pixar Pals parking garage, connecting Walnut Street and Disneyland Drive. As part of a presentation to the Anaheim residents and officials today, Disneyland said that updated traffic counts revealed that 99% of the traffic on that road is Disney visitors or cast members.
Some area residents have complained that the elimination of Magic Way as a public road would remove an alternative to bypass Ball Road when trying to get on the 5. But Disneyland said its study showed that not only do only a tiny fraction of drivers use Magic Way for that purpose, but also that closing Magic Way would be consistent with a 1992 development agreement that sought to reduce Disney-related traffic access to and from Walnut.
Still, a significant number of pedestrians are cutting through a median on Walnut to access the resort at Magic Way. In response to that desire path, Disneyland is proposing to install a protected crosswalk at that point, which would connect to a new bike lane that would run parallel to Walnut, on Disney’s side of the street.
Another proposed street abandonment that has drawn concern is the proposal for Anaheim to abandon a planned - but not built - expansion of Gene Autry Drive, part of which passes through what is now the Toy Story lot. Another part of that planned expansion runs underneath apartment complexes on Haster Street. Disneyland officials emphasized that Disney is not proposing and has no plans to obtain or remove those apartments.
The City of Anaheim is in the process of considering the DisneylandForward proposal, which if approved would change the 1990s land use rules for the resort. That would allow Disney to build attractions and hotels on land now designated for use as parking, including the Toy Story and Downtown Disney parking lots. Also as part of the proposal, Disney has committed to spending at least $1.9 billion on new attractions in the first 10 years of the deal.
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If this were any company other than Disney the first phase of this project would be finishing construction, but since its Disney it will probably be another decade before the first attraction opens.