Letters on Disney Plan Under Study : Environment: Anaheim officials begin reviewing public concerns regarding proposed park expansion.

ANAHEIM — City officials on Wednesday started reviewing stacks of letters submitted by people concerned about the possible adverse impacts of Disneyland’s proposed $3-billion expansion project.

Many of the letters criticized the city’s Draft Environmental Impact Report for not fully considering the detrimental effects the project would have on traffic congestion, noise and air pollution, and the availability of affordable housing.

Anaheim resident Doug Kintz called the city’s analysis “an exercise in excessive myopic detail, meaningless statistics, resounding redundancy, subterfuge and just plain gobbledygook.”

The public had from Nov. 13 through Tuesday to submit written comments to the city. City planning officials must now respond to every letter and determine whether the EIR adequately addresses the concerns or if more analysis is needed.

After the city reviews and responds to the comments, public hearings on the draft EIR will be held. The City Council must then approve a final version of the report before Disney can begin construction.

Under the proposal, Disney would build a new, second theme park called Westcot, three hotels, a 5,000-seat amphitheater, garden and retail districts and two of the nation’s largest parking garages.

At the time of Tuesday’s public comment deadline, the city had received hundreds of letters about the project. The majority of the letters supported the Disney venture, but there were many that expressed apprehension about the project’s impacts.

Both the Anaheim and Garden Grove school districts stated that they felt the draft EIR significantly underestimated the number of students who would be attending their schools as a result of the project.

The cities of Stanton, Garden Grove and Orange said Disney’s proposed resort would impact their city’s traffic problems and create shortages in the existing affordable housing stocks.

Members of Anaheim HOME, a local homeowners group, opposed the project for a variety of reasons, including noise from fireworks at the park to the unsightly placement of a parking structure near their residences.

The California Department of Transportation submitted a letter criticizing the city document’s lack of a rail transit plan. A motel owner said he feared that new streets would block access to his motel.

And resident Barbara French said the project would create too much air pollution. French even submitted a bag of dirt with her letter, which she said had come from the outside surface of her window, to show there already is too much air pollution in the city.

Among the favorable comments were letters sent from the business community, including the Chamber of Commerce offices of Fountain Valley and Buena Park. The cities of Lake Forest and San Clemente submitted copies of resolutions passed by their City Councils endorsing the project.

Chapman University President James Doti praised the expansion, saying it would increase jobs and local revenues.

Doti called the project a “major engine of economic growth.”