Despite the concerns of citizens, most of whom said they would not vote for it, the Cypress City Council voted 4-1 at the meeting last Monday to put a measure on the ballot that would flood the former Town Center property with 700 new residences.
In addition, the city acknowledged that although any such construction of those houses are decades away, the Los Alamitos Racecourse will have to be closed and removed from the site before these proposed residences are constructed.
“The new language is shown in red and clarifies that the amendments to this specific program plan provide a right to develop the CTC with the 676 additional units. It does not require the units to be constructed, nor does it permit them. The permitting process would still need to be adhered to,” said Planning Director Alicia Velasco.
Under the city’s housing element approved by the state, Cypress had to demonstrate to state officials the capacity to construct almost 4,000 new residents in the next eight years, although Velasco insisted voter approval “does not mean these new housing units are going to be constructed soon.”
The Housing Element approved by the state does include a fail-safe plan that would allow these additional residences to be proposed to be built in the Lincoln Avenue corridor.
During a public hearing, however, citizens expressed a variety of opinions with most, and not all, opposing the additional housing on the existing racetrack site, one of the largest areas of undeveloped land in the city.
Permits already exist for more than 1,100 residences on racetrack property, said resident Bryant Rut, and if voters approve this ballot measure, it would bring the total to nearly 2,000.
“It puts a disproportionate percentage of the new housing units on the 300-acre Cypress Town Center, Commons area. The ballot measure, if approved, would put 66 percent of the city’s required new residents on 7 percent of the city’s land, he suggested.
This, said Rutt, “is going to exacerbate the overcrowding and traffic congestion for not only the town center residents but also for anyone visiting this area.”
After 45 years in Cypress, Gail Kaplan said this was her first time at a city council meeting. She said the housing, as proposed, is not really going to be affordable and could put a strain on other resources.
Resident Rita Gamily, a 30-year Cypress resident, took issue with City Manager Peter Grant who lauded the city’s management team, including Velasco, earlier in the meeting.
“When Peter Grant mentioned how great you guys are doing, I’m going to say go talk to the residents and my neighbors. This is not the case and not the feeling we have,” she said.
She chided city officials for approving a local business with insufficient parking and “guess what, all those employees are parking on our residences because there is not enough parking,” she said.
“And now you want to build an additional 676 residential units on top of the 1100 already approved,” she said, “can you picture that. Talk to the residents instead of just assuming, “ she said.
Resident Brittney Cook held up an Instagram ad that she said the city had put on Instagram with the headline “Maintain Local Control.”
“My concern is this ad that was paid for by the City of Cypress, on the city’s official page, and it is beautiful, well done, except to my understanding, there is no such scenario here,” said Cook.
“Whether citizens vote yes or no,” said Cook, “we still maintain local control, so why are we fear-mongering? That’s a little concerning to me,” she said. Even if residents vote not, she said, there is a failsafe plan so no loss of local control.
“Maybe we need to look at what’s going out before it goes out,” said Cook.
Armando Sepulveda said he remembered “reading about how the city awarded a trash contract without following the proper procedure, which gave me a very negative impression of the city.”
Already, he said, traffic is “bumper to bumper morning and evening”, and “unless you double-decker Katella Avenue, and Cerritos, it’s going to be a nightmare,” he said.
“It’s insane. It’s really, quite insane,” said resident Marilyn Reames, who again reminded the city council that the Ovation Senior Living community still does not have a traffic light on Katella Ave. to give residents convenient access to their own community.
To make matters worse, this slither of Cypress has a Los Alamitos zip code, which Reames said sometimes makes life confusing.
“And you’re talking about adding hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more residents that will also share that 90720 zip code. Good luck with that. I’m proud to be a Cypress resident. So anyway, if this goes to the ballot, I guarantee I’ll vote it down. I appreciate all the hard work, but we see the reality of it every single day.” said Reames.
Not all residents were opposed.
Former Mayor, businessman and Chamber Board member Tim Keenan praised the Council.
“I’m here to support the city’s suggestion for a ballot measure that will make modifications to allow this increase to the already approved residential zoning,” said Keenan.
“It’s kind of coincidental, but future development is reliant on the racecourse going away some long time out in the future,” he said.
He suggested “if you’re angry about this,” that residents should focus their anger on “politicians in Sacramento,” not the City Council.
Cory Sanders, a resident who lives north of Lincoln, said “I feel like our part of the city is not being well represented here tonight.” She said most residents north of Lincolan have absolutely no idea what’s going on.
While she expressed concern of the density increase to 30 units per acre, Sanders said she supported bring the ballot measure to a vote. “Let the voters decide,” she said. “I think that’s important.”
“I agree with the council,” said resident Paul Kokkinos. “On some level, growth is essential. We may not all like it. I know that there are a lot of people here who would prefer zero growth. I’m not one of them. I see that there’s a place for growth,” he said.
“But what I also see is that it’s an opportunity for additional transparency because as a city, our residents and our voters need to know, in an easily accessible format, who financially supports the campaigns of council members both current and future,” he said.
Kokkinos suggested that with a boatload of money about to be made by developers, city officials whose campaigns benefit from those dollars should be more transparent with the voters “so we can ensure that our city council remains free as much as possible of pay-to-play governance.”
“Certain entities in the development of the CTC stand to make millions of dollars. That’s frightening. Okay, that’s concerning,” he said.
Council member Frances Marquez agreed, and in fact, demanded by Mayor Scott Minikus and Mayor Pro-tem Bonnie Peat to recuse themselves on the ballot measure vote because of special interest funding their campaigns in 2022 had involuntarily received from PACs connected to the racecourse.
Marquez suggested Minikus’s campaigns received the beneficial interest of $16,000 and Peat’s campaign had the benefit of $8000 from the Safe Neighborhoods PAC, to which a developer from Los Al Racecourse had contributed.
“Although it’s not illegal, I believe it is important for residents to know that approving additional units on the racecourse would increase the value of the land owned by the developer who spent heavily to support Mayor Minikus and Mayor Pro-tem Peat,” said Marquez.
“Mr. Mayor, I continue to be of the opinion that this is not related to the public hearing issue,” contended Fred Galante, the city’s legal counsel.
“Campaign contributions have no role in your decision in the state. State law makes it clear that whether or not you receive a campaign contribution does not impact your ability,” he said.
“I understand that and it’s sad that Council member Marquez continues to go on these rants,” scoffed Minikus.
“Excuse me, it’s not a rant,” Marquez shot back, “It’s important for the residents of Cypress to know what’s really happening behind the scenes.
That’s why I always put myself out there to tell you what is really happening.”
Council member Anne Hertz Mallari quizzed Velasco and Public Works Director Doug Dancs about resource issues, wanting to ensure the city’s infrastructure was prepared for adding a large volume of new residences when the time came.
In addition, she wanted to make sure that the city’s regular zoning laws would trump the Housing Element, saying she wanted to clarify a question asked by a resident. “She was concerned that this might force businesses like the racecourse to close and that’s not correct, right?”
“The racecourse is a private property owner and that owner can continue to operate as a racecourse, or whomever follows him, for as long as they like. This is just another option,” said Velasco.
“I want to thank all the residents who have come out and spoken tonight on this and all the residents who have emailed or spoken to me in person over the past couple of weeks. It’s been very interesting to hear the different perspectives and I really, it’s so helpful to me, as a council member to hear directly from community members in here,” said Council member David Burke.
“I’ve heard from people on both sides on this and the majority of people I’ve heard from they’ve said that they wouldn’t probably vote yes on the ballot measure or they would vote no on it. And they’re concerned about the density level. And the traffic, which I think we’ve heard that tonight,” he added.
I’m comfortable with voters making that decision. And I also want you to know that I’m committed to making sure that you do have accurate information. I am happy to be a conduit if you have questions that you want us to put on the website under frequently asked questions or if you just want to ask me directly. I really just want this to be based on the facts.
“I think what we’re trying to do is to provide options and leave it up to the residents to what that looks like but provide medium density homes that are hopefully more affordable than some of the other things are, but really provide options for the kids and their kids in 15 – 20 years,” said Peat.
“People are looking forward to being able to live locally and have newer homes to live in. and trying to live in Cypress if they could. Now look at those prices today, the whole housing market is crazy,” she said.
“I hear all sides of it and I understand it and I think we need to leave it to voters,” said Peat.
Before the Council voted, Grant explained the exponential projection used by staff to determine that if certain things did happen, and others didn’t, the city could, in the future, perhaps lose their local control as he defended the ad that Cook criticized as fear mongering.
In the end, Minikus and Peat voted, as the Council voted 4-1 to send the additional housing approval measure to be placed on the November statewide ballot. Marquez voted no.
The ballot measure will now appear on the November ballot.