The City of Cypress has recently approved the purchase of a residential home and an accompanying one-acre lot for $2.7 million at 6612 Cerritos Ave. that it plans to use to expand Baroldi Sycamore Park.
According to a staff report and presentation made by City Manager Peter Grant, the city “approached the sellers for all the family, descendants and spouses about the opportunity to grow their legacy in the community.”
“Earlier this year, the Baroldi family listed 6612 Cerritos Avenue, a 39,000 square foot parcel which borders the Park to the west, for sale,” he said. “Recognizing the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand the Park, the City Council directed staff to engage the family regarding purchasing 6612 Cerritos Avenue,” he added.
“Undeveloped land adjacent to a park is rare, especially in fully developed cities,” said Grant.
Grant said “We were able to reach an agreement…and recommend to you to acquire the parcel for $2.7 million combined with a little bit of city right of way” already owned by the city.
The City Manager said the property is about one acre in total and “will provide the opportunity for the council and the neighborhood and the community at large to explore opportunities to expand Sycamore Park.
Currently, he said, the park is in “passive use” as a park with play equipment and shade structures which largely serves the neighborhood via on-street parking, the city official said.
“It’s really easy to find it’s right on Cerritos Avenue just before you leave Cypress on your way into Buena Park,” he said.
Baroldi Sycamore Park (6616 Cerritos Avenue) was created in 1970 when the Baroldi family subdivided its 22-acre dairy farm and donated 1.2 acres for a park. The neighborhood park features a picnic pavilion and barbeque, playground equipment, a sand play area, open space, and a meandering walking path, according to the staff report.
The Council authorized the city manager to finalize all documents, including $15,000 for closing costs.
The purchase requires the appropriation of $2,715,000 from the District’s General Fund reserves for future park improvements. A portion of these reserves ($2.2 million) were a one-time transfer from the City’s General Fund budget surplus in February 2018. The remaining $515,000 are accumulated District fund balances set-aside for capital improvements, the staff report said.
At the most recent meeting of the Council during oral communications, local businessman turned activist Bob Youngsma, who along with 40 of his neighbors are suing the Council, questioned the purchase price and he complained the minutes of the last meeting did not adequately reflect the transaction.
“You should be turning over a document that says here’s the minutes. I don’t see it. I also want to complain about a certain item that happened,” said Youngsma. “You decided to buy a piece of property for $2.7 million. I did a little investigation on that property. And found out Cypress already owns 8860 square feet of property on the west side and the south side of that property which boxes that property in,” he said.
“Cypress then went to residential people to appraise the property, not a commercial property seller that was selling it,” he said. “Cypress had a big controlling factor over that property,” claimed Youngsma, adding that Cypress claimed that even though the city said it wanted it for a park, it never acted on using the property it already owned there to provide access to its existing park.
“I have a park across the street from my house with terrible, terrible sidewalks and Cypress is an expert in grinding and patching and not fixing sidewalks. And guess what? You go and spend $2.7 for a piece of property but you can’t fix the sidewalks that are dangerous,” he asked?