Revealed earlier today, Disney has unveiled new plans for their Parks in California. They
laid out a long-term plan, known as “Disneyland Forward,” to work with the City of Anaheim to develop the land both East and West of the parks and allow for more experiences for park guests.

From the LA Times…

Disney officials said it is too early in the process to disclose construction costs but vowed to bring detailed development plans for approval to the Anaheim City Council by 2023.

The announcement of the proposed overhaul comes less than two years after the media giant spent $1 billion to open its newest expansion to Disneyland, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, in May 2019. The next addition, an area dubbed Avengers Campus that features Marvel superhero characters, is expected to open soon at Disney California Adventure.

The illustration provided shows plans for one of the areas to be interwoven around the
land surrounding both the Disneyland Hotel and the Paradise Pier Hotel. The idea being that if you stayed at either hotel you could look out your window and directly see the new area with potential access to said area being made available with your stay.

Disney has yet to specify whether the area is indeed a “third gate” or an expansion to one
of the parks/the shopping center. As of right now we can only speculate on the matter. One
suggested that it will be a shopping center similar to Disney Springs in Florida but over time will include rides/attractions and potentially connect directly with one or both existing parks on the West Side and potential for the East Side.

A map shows the potential areas in which the new area(s) will reside and that includes
areas for which a third park might be located to the South with another shopping/eating center next to it. These have not yet been confirmed by Disney so take this with a grain of salt.

This expansion is most likely being done to help bring in more guests to the parks, or at
least those with deep pockets, as Disneyland’s attendance numbers over the years have been going down, and due to the Annual Pass being discontinued that number will continue to go down when over 50% of guests are local Californians.

This, plus the potential third gate, may be what Disney hopes will bring back guests. All we can do is wait and see if these plans will be approved by the local government and if these expansion does its job and bring back guests.

[Sources: OC Register, Hat Tip: Blog Mickey]