Dear Editor,
This letter is in response to the recent article “City is Ignoring Concerns of Citizens in Lampson Decision.” The Los Alamitos City Council represents Los Alamitos residents and that’s where their focus should always be.
Mayor Tanya Doby along with Council Members Jordan Nefulda and Shelley Hasselbrink are doing an exceptional job responding to a small group of Seal Beach and Rossmoor residents who incorrectly insist that a Lampson development is not good for Los Alamitos residents. Doby, Nefulda and Hasselbrink are doing right by the city council they serve on.
It appears that council members Emily Hibard and Trisha Murphy are listening more to Seal Beach and Rossmoor residents rather than their own constituents.
The reality is that ANY proposed so-called “Lampson development project” is GOOD for Los Alamitos residents.
The problem for Seal Beach and Rossmoor residents is that a project on Lampson Avenue also has challenges for their neighborhood. From affecting traffic near their homes and parks and commutes to more consumers shopping in nearby retail centers such as the Shops by Rossmoor, which means more sales tax for Seal Beach.
These Seal Beach and Rossmoor Not-In-My-Neighborhood neighbors are demanding that the Los Alamitos City Council move the planned 317-unit development to another location. Of course, these Seal Beach and Rossmoor residents have failed to recommend another suitable Los Alamitos site.
The Lampson 317-unit development is part of a state mandated housing requirement that the City of Los Alamitos must fulfill. If Seal Beach and Rossmoor residents are angry about the proposal, they need to direct their outrage to Governor Gavin Newsom. Los Alamitos has no choice as our city is mandated to build more housing.
Now, Seal Beach and Rossmoor residents are seeking to undo a Los Alamitos ordinance needed to implement the State mandate by circulating a referendum. If a circulator comes to your door, do not sign their referendum. Instead ask, “Where do you think the 317-units should be built if not on Lampson?”
Please contact and thank Los Alamitos city council members Nefulda and Hasselbrink, and Mayor Doby for keeping their focus on Los Alamitos constituents.
Please contact council members Hibard and Murphy and respectfully remind them that they represent Los Alamitos residents, not those residing in Seal Beach and Rossmoor.
Frank Marchese
Los Alamitos
No longer living in Cypress
Dear Editor,
My name is Jeff Lundberg and my wife and I have lived in Cypress for 36 years. This has been a great city to live in until recent times. Some members of the past council and the current council seem to have personal agendas that do not fall in-line with what our city goals need to be. We have a traffic commission and no planning commission.
This seems out of line where we have a city that is almost 100% developed and we do not want to have the citizens input and guidance on key development projects. Getting a Trader Joe’s is great for the City, but 3 story homes and a huge hotel is the price.
We now have a pay to play park that was built with tax payers money, we are spending over $25 million to update Arnold Park and last year Jon Peat lead a “done deal” proposal to out a restroom in Maple Grove Park North and he does not even live in the neighborhood. We are just given a 30% increase in our trash collection bill via the City Council and they also approved a no bid contract and 10 year contract extension to Valley Vista.
If these things were not corrupt they would almost be comical. Our Mayor runs the Boys and Girls club, receives a large compensation package, gets yearly rent for $1 and gets FREE trash service. If these are the visible things I want to know what goes on in the smoke filled rooms and how many other deals are made for their personal gain and not to benefit our city.
Transparency is a fundamental element of honest government. In response to the council member that claimed to be a God fearing person, this was said by Abraham Lincoln at the Gettysburg address “God, shall have new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people , shall not perish from the great earth.”
So…get with the program!
The current City seal had “Progress” as the marquee, I think we should focus on Abraham Lincoln’s quote and the new marquee needs to be “Transparency!
Jeff Lundberg
Now a resident of Rancho Mission Viejo
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Letters to the Editor can be submitted to Event-News Enterprise by E-mail at: editor@event-newsenterprise.com.
Response to last week’s letter re Lampson project objection is about safety concerns
Mr. Marchese,
The association of Protect Our Community Now (pocnow.org) is NOT proposing the Lampson Project be moved. That is simply false.
POCNOW is an association of residents from Seal Beach and Los Alamitos and Rossmoor who believe that the Lampson Project contains too many houses that abut the Joint Forces Training Base. The heights of the units place them on the arrival and departure path according to the Airport Land Use Commission. The Commission reports that additional use of the Base is anticipated, and the noise and safety contours are going to be expanded even closer to future development.
The City of Los Alamitos has failed to identify and plan for flood zones and liquefaction identified by the State of California geologic department for this project. The Lampson Project, as designed, puts the public safety at risk.
The Airport Land Use Commission ALUC wrote a detained analysis to the City of Los Alamitos explaining why the Lampson Project and the Starting Gate Project proposed for 5030-5084 Katella are too close to the flight path.
The City should require a reduction in the height of the housing units on Lampson and The Starting Track, the development agreement to require “noise mitigation measures” consisting of special windows and insulation to assure interior noise is limited to the allowable standards, public disclosure to potential purchasers that noise from the Base will increase and may result in health problems, and that site specific geologic studies be conducted and paid for by the Developer to assure that buildings over 2 stories do not collapse during an earthquake due to the soil liquefying. All of these are reasonable requests to protect the public safety and are recommended.
The City owes a duty to its residents to avoid conflicts of interest and to disclose the relationship between a former city manager/city planner who now works for KB Homes, the national housing developer who purchased the land from a Limited Liability Company called Lampson Park Place, whose primary investors are: George A Voigt, Matt Waken, Jason Gross and Joshua Gross.
Les Johnson the former Los Alamitos city manager and planning director is employed by T&B Planning, and is now the consultant for KB Homes, the developer of Lampson and perhaps other undisclosed projects within Los Alamitos.
Public records requests revealed that Mr. Johnson was actively involved in designing the Zoning and Housing Element FOR LOS ALAMITOS and KB HOMES. Clearly there is a “conflict of interest” where the City staff and the elected officials have duties to their residents to protect their safety, while the Developer’s duty is to make a profit for its investors.
Councilmembers Doby, Nefulda and Hasselbrink turned their backs to their constituents’s safety and voted to OVERTURN the findings of the ALUC that public safety was jeopardized by the zoning proposed by Los Alamitos, which zoning was designed by the Developer’s consultant. Doby, Nufulda and Hasselbrink CHOOSE developer profit over constituent safety.
Asking questions and demanding answers is exactly what a competent elected official should do. Good for Hibard and Murphy.
Carol Churchill
Los Alamitos
Citizens of Los Alamitos! Please, lend me your eyes
Dear Editor,
You may or may not know that California has passed a couple of housing laws within the last couple of years. One of them demands that each city submit a plan as to how they are going to add an assigned number of housing units within their city. Los Alamitos’ number is close to 800 units. The housing has to be available within 8 years. How and where is Los Alamitos going to build these units?
Our city is 4 square miles. The Joint Forces Training Base takes up about 2 square miles. That leaves about 2 miles for our current citizens and we have to find room for 800 more housing units. How does that make you feel? I know. Me too. If you don’t like this idea of squeezing more people into our very limited area, fight Sacramento. Fight to change the law. But, the way that it stands right now, is that 800 housing units have to be added within our borders within 8 years. And know this, Seal Beach and Rossmoor also have to add units within their borders.
The city has located a property at the far southern end of our border. On Lampson. They are talking with a developer that wants to build several hundred housing units there – solving almost half of our problem. How does that sound to you? Some citizens from Seal Beach are complaining because this construction, they believe, will impact their quality of life and they are showing up at Los Alamitos’ City Council Meetings to get the Council to not allow anything to be built in Los Alamitos at the Southern Border. I say to you, citizens of Los Alamitos, if we cannot build 400 housing units on a piece of property located within our border on Lampson, where would you like 800 more units to be built? Perhaps you would like Laurel Park taken away so that some units can be built there. Or perhaps Little Cottonwood Park needs to be replaced with high rise apartment buildings? Where else can 100’s of units go?
Oh, I forgot to tell you, are you aware that there is another law, on the books right now, that allow any homeowner to build up their single-family home property to 4 units? Yes. It’s a law. Any single-family home can now increase the number of units on their property to 4 units. There are no additional parking regulations. Can you imagine if every neighbor on your street, for those that live-in single-family homes, decide to increase their housing units to 4?
If we can’t get units built on vacant pieces of land within our city limits, then the city is going to highly encourage homeowners to expand their property to 4 units and, quite possibly, we will have to say goodbye to our parks to make room for more units.
I’m not telling you what to do. But something is going to be done. If you would like the City Council to approve the units being proposed on Lampson to fill our part of housing units, please let them know. If you would prefer to close down our parks and have single family homes turned into 4 units up and down our streets, then don’t do anything. There are people from outside our city who are showing up at our City Council meetings arguing for the latter. If the Council does not hear from its’ citizens, maybe they will think that everyone is okay with building units over our parks and encouraging everyone to build out their single family homes to 4 units. Please voice your opinion, residents of Los Alamitos.
Eileen Doerrer
Los Alamitos
No female officers in new hires at Los Alamitos?
Dear Editor,
Reading the article ‘Los Alamitos Police ramps up with new officers.’
No female officers? And I thought Los Alamitos was trying to crawl into the 21st century!
George Earle Townshend II
Los Alamitos
Send us Letters
Letters on topics of current interested are encouraged and will be published as timely as possible. Letters of potentially libelous nature will not be published. All Letters must have the writer’s name, city of residence and phone number for verification. Only the writer’s name and city will be published.
Letters to the Editor can be submitted to Event-News Enterprise by E-mail at: editor@event-newsenterprise.com.
