ANAHEIM : Community Center Site OKd by Council

A community center will open this month in a troubled Disneyland-area neighborhood.

The City Council decided Tuesday night to rent a two-bedroom apartment for $820 a month in Jeffrey-Lynne, a five-block apartment area behind the Disneyland Hotel. The council voted in June to spend $68,000 for the community center, including hiring a full-time employee to staff it.

For nearly two years, residents of the predominantly Latino area have been asking for a community center which would distribute information in Spanish about health care, immigration, jobs and other services.

Opening a community center was one of the recommendations of a $50,000 study of the neighborhood conducted earlier this year by a Santa Ana social service agency. The apartment will be rented on a month-to-month basis to “allow the city to assess the effectiveness . . . without a long-term commitment,” said Christopher K. Jarvi, director of Parks, Recreation and Community Services.