A long-time activist in the City of Cypress urged citizens on Thursday not to be tooled by city hall and just vote ‘no’ on a ballot measure that seeks to build nearly 700 new residences on the grounds of the Los Alamitos Racecourse.
George Pardon, the co-founder of the nonprofit “Citizens for the Responsible Development of Cypress,” spoke to more than 100 residents at the Ovation senior living community this week to discuss a ballot initiative the city plans to discuss on June 24.
Alicia Velasco, the city’s planning director, held two workshops with residents recently to offer information about the new development that plans a 676-unit housing tract.
Even though the city’s housing element plans for new units on Lincoln Avenue, Pardon says the city is somehow aiming to build them on racecourse property, which would require voter approval.
“What’s really frustrating,” said Pardon, is that “they’re trying to create a divide here. They say, if we don’t put it here on the racetrack, we’re going to have to put it on Lincoln and then basically a great divide between the folks that live closer here and the folks that live along the Lincoln corridor.”
“The problem is, is that the city, you know, is very hypocritical about this,” he said. Information being disseminated is misleading, said Pardon, metaphorically comparing it to a wolf speaking to a herd of sheep saying, “I promise when I’m elected, I’ll become a vegetarian.”
“That’s kind of what we’re hearing here,” he said.
Pardon said when the city originally submitted its housing element to the state, it included the 676-unit at the Racecourse. “Because building those 676 units on Racecourse property will require voter approval, the state asked the city to submit an alternative proposal.
The city then submitted an alternative proposal with the additional units planned for Lincoln Ave., which was accepted by the state.
“So in their brochure when they say ‘if you don’t do this, we’re going to have to build them on Lincoln, they already have approval to build them there,” said Pardon.
“The hypocrisy here is they already have a plan for 3900 units so when we authorize another 676 units, we’re really authorizing 4700 residential units in our city, said Pardon.
In addition, Pardon said, “if residents pay attention to City Council meetings, and I’ve brought it up with the two community meetings that they’ve recently had, and nobody denies it, the mayor and others say, ‘well, one of the reasons that we don’t have the on Lincoln is that because of a lot sizes and the number of lots that exist there, it’ll never get built.’”
“What’s the problem with that,” asked Pardon, “who wants 3200 new residences here, let alone 3900 so this threat to put them on Lincoln is an idle threat,” he said.
In addition, he suggested that even if the voters approve the development at the ballot, there is nothing to stop developers from also building on Lincoln, effectively extending the housing element past its approved total of 3,900 housing units to 4700.
Another point, said Pardon, is that if voters approve a ballot measure to construct 676 new residences in the city, there would be little property left to build a meaningful “Town Center” that was originally approved by voters.
“I think enough is enough,” he told the residents, “and hopefully you would agree with that,” he told the residents.
“The city has spent a lot of money on this so far, our money, and you know the dilemmas, they send out these brochures, but they never give anyone from an opposing position to send out a brochure that would just tell the residents the rest of the story,” said Pardon.
“Nothing bothers me more than getting misinformation,” he added.
Pardon said one of the reasons he wanted to speak to the group was to encourage voters to speak up, to use the civic power they hold to say no.
Courtesy ohoto
“That’s one of the reasons that I’m here today,” said Pardon. “And they (city hall) think, obviously, they have a good chance of passing it. They wouldn’t be putting this on the ballot if they didn’t think there’s a chance that it would get passed, and so the council needs to hear from you,” he told them.
Before the Council makes the final decision whether or not to put the racetrack development on the ballot, “if they would hear from hundreds of people that they were planning to vote no, I think their tendency would be to consider not putting it on the ballot,” said Pardon.
“When they sent this brochure out (about the ballot measure) they included a postcard,” said Pardon. “I don’t know if you have that postcard or not, but if you still have it, you can write no. Just by saying no, that we have no intention of voting for it (ballot measure).
Also, he said Marilyn Reames, a resident of Ovation, could provide them with Council members’ email addresses.
“I think it’s very important for us to communicate this issue,” said Pardon. “If we don’t, they’re just going to proceed.”
Reames said Pardon’s visit to Ovation was part of a new “Speaker Series” the local community has begun under the leadership of Chairwoman Diane Ortega.
After Pardon finished, they also discussed Ovation’s ongoing efforts to have a stoplight installed on Katella near their community. For years, they have fought without success to have a stoplight installed at the intersection of Enterprise and Katella Ave.
Many residents expressed concern that if voters approve a ballot measure for nearly 700 new homes at the racetrack, the extraordinarly bad traffic situation would only get worse.