Planners Want Event to Stay at New Site

After a controversial decision last year to move the Heritage Festival out of Old Town Placentia, organizers of the annual event want the shift to be permanent.

Heritage Festival Committee members voted 6 to 2 Wednesday to recommend that the 37-year-old festival and parade be moved indefinitely to Tri-City Park, where there is more room to accommodate the growing number of people attending the events. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposal Jan. 16.

As many as 50 people attended the committee meeting. Many were residents of the city’s mostly Latino community to the south, who asked that the event be kept in their blue-collar neighborhood at Kraemer Park. Tri-City Park, a sprawling greenbelt with an artificial lake and more parking, lies in a neighborhood of two-story homes and three-car garages.

Last year, residents to the south decried the move, saying it broke from tradition. Committee members Frank Bursiaga and Betsy Regla voted against the move. Neither could be reached for comment Thursday.

Steve Pischel, director of community services for the city, said the committee’s recommendation includes suggestions that the event become a weeklong affair with other activities held in Old Town and at Kraemer Park. The annual Taste of Old Town could open the festivities, and other activities--such as a street dance proposed by the Placentia Rotary Club--might also be included, he said.