DisneylandForward

DisneylandForward is a public planning effort between the Walt Disney Company and the City of Anaheim to build a proposed expansion to the Disneyland Resort, announced on March 25, 2021.
==Project==
===Background===
In the 1990s, City of Anaheim approved plans that would facilitated the creation of the Anaheim Resort District and the expansion of the original Disneyland Park into the Disneyland Resort. 
The Anaheim Resort consists of the immediate area of the city surrounding the Disney property. This project undertaken by the city brought about wider streets, landscaping improvements, and zoning changes. It also saw the imposition of height restrictions, branding and signage standards on the area businesses that quickly sprung up around the Disney property in the 1950s and 1960s.
This expansion brought about the 2001 openings of the property's second theme park, Disney California Adventure; a third resort hotel, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa; a shopping, dining and entertainment district, Downtown Disney; and the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure.
DisneylandForward is a push by the Walt Disney Company to work with the City of Anaheim to build upon the 1990s-era guidelines and lobby for zoning changes that would allow for multi-use development and expansion on the Disneyland Resort property. Disney argues that the current guidelines do not allow for expansion, stating, "We want to bring more Disney investment to Anaheim. However, this simply isn’t possible under current inflexible planning restrictions unless we remove and replace treasured rides and attractions in our Parks today." The City of Anaheim has signaled that it is open to such changes.
===Proposed expansions===
Disney has stated through DisneylandForward.com that it is "not announcing any future projects at this time", and that the expansion is contingent on the city's approval of the project. The project would be privately funded entirely by The Walt Disney Company and would take place entirely on property already owned by the company.
====Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park====
Part of the proposed expansion is a "Possible Immersive Theme Park" development on the resort's west side. This proposal would see both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure expanding across Disneyland Drive, with new themed lands constructed on land currently occupied by the western end of Downtown Disney, Simba Parking Lot, and Lilo Parking Lot, with the existing Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel integrated into the area.
Citing new and upcoming attractions at Tokyo DisneySea and Shanghai Disneyland as inspirations, Disney named themed lands based on Frozen, Tangled, Peter Pan, Toy Story Land, and City of Zootopia, as well as the TRON Lightcycle Power Run attraction, as possible "inspirations" for future attractions in the expansion.
Much of this area was previously earmarked for a fourth Disneyland Resort hotel, announced in 2017 and set to open in 2021. Downtown Disney's AMC Theatres, Earl of Sandwich, ESPN Zone, Rainforest Cafe, and Starbucks West locations were closed on June 30, 2018, to make way for the new hotel. However, by October 2018, Disney had cancelled the project, after a dispute with the city resulted in the cancellation of a 20-year tax rebate agreement made the previous year.
====A New Kind of Disney Entertainment====
A second part of the proposed expansion is "A New Kind of Disney Entertainment Destination" for the land currently occupied by the resort's Toy Story Parking Lot, to be modeled after Walt Disney World's Disney Springs shopping, dining, and entertainment district. Disney advertises that the site "could be the perfect location to cater to locals, conventioneers, hotel and Disneyland Resort guests with restaurants, hotels, live music, shopping, ticketed shows and theme park experiences." Concept art for the area features Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar, an Indiana Jones-themed bar and restaurant that first opened at Disney Springs in 2015.
The 56-acre site was previously home to the Fujishige Farm, a strawberry farm established by Hiroshi Fujishige in 1954, shortly before Disneyland opened nearby. The land value of the farm skyrocketed shortly thereafter, and the Fujishiges were regularly bombarded with offers from developers and the city alike. However, the Fujishiges refused to sell, and continued to operate the farm. The Walt Disney Company itself had unsuccessfully offered to buy the land from the family for over 20 years. Following Hiroshi's death in 1998 at age 76, the family decided to sell to Disney. By that time, the land Hiroshi acquired in 1954 for $3,500 was worth over $90 million. By 2000, with Disney's California Adventure nearing completion, Disney began publicly promoting the 56-acre plot as a potential site for a third theme park, even going so far as to launch a website at thirdthemepark.com to promote its preliminary plans and discussions with the City of Anaheim. Following the February 2001 opening of Disney's California Adventure to mixed reviews and underperforming attendance, exacerbated by the devastating economic impact on tourism following the September 11 attacks, any immediate plans for a third park were abandoned, and by the end of 2002, the website was shut down. On March 29, 2010, the present-day Toy Story Parking Lot opened on the former Fujishige Farm site. 
==Gallery==
File:Disneyland-forward-new-destination-entertainment.jpeg|Concept art of the new entertainment area, replacing the Toy Story parking lot.
File:Disneyland-forward-map-future-california.png|Map plan of the expansion.
==References==
Category:Disneyland Resort