The Anaheim City Council is expected to consider on Tuesday, Dec.16, a proposal that would turn part of the Anaheim Hills Festival shopping center into housing.
If final site plans are voted through, a 447-unit residential community would replace the shopping hub’s shuttered Regal Cinema.
The theater, at the southern end of the center that’s located between Festival Drive and Roosevelt Road, closed shortly after owner Cineworld Group declared bankruptcy in 2022.
In its place, developers propose a four-story residential building wrapped around a five-level, 954-space parking structure. The apartment mix would include up to three bedrooms, would range from 591 square feet to 728 square feet, and come with their own private balconies or patios.
And those who live there would see a clubhouse, two swimming pools, a fitness center and, potentially, an enclosed dog park.
“You’re seeing the city take part in this trend where you take a shopping center and it becomes apartments,” city spokesperson Mike Lyster said. “And the idea is you can support the same amount of retail that was there before.”
Residents would be just steps away from the center’s existing shops and restaurants.
But the proposal has drawn mixed reviews from some residents and local groups who say that the location is unsafe for housing.
The proposed housing would be built less than a quarter mile east of the Deer Canyon Park Preserve, an area that has seen two major fires in 2017, several letters to the council ahead of Tuesday’s meeting point out, along with noting about half of the property would fall in what the State Fire Marshal describes as a “Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.”
The designation does not prevent development in the area, but extra fire protection measures are required by state building codes.
This is not the first time the city has considered development requests in such zones. In 2024, the council ultimately rejected a 498-unit apartment complex in nearby Deer Canyon over concerns related to wildfire and evacuations.
“This project, however, is different,” Lyster said.
“And at maximum capacity with the movie theater, you would have had as many people on site there as you would with an apartment,” he said. “And so it’s not adding people that you have to get out. It’s really kind of one for one.”
Since the Planning Commission’s vote in November to recommend the council consider approving the project, the developers have offered $100,000 in a community benefit contribution to the Anaheim Police Department for additional wildlife evacuation training and preparedness efforts. A contribution of $100,000 to Anaheim Fire & Rescue for wildfire prevention efforts was already part of the proposed development agreement.
The public hearing is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the Council Chambers of City Hall. The council will be considering a general plan amendment, amending the site plan for the shopping center area, a final site plan and a development agreement.