Developers Have Plans for Course : Golfers, Teed Off, Hope to Save Links

Like a foursome shooting under par, members of a club hoping to save the Los Alamitos Golf Course from developers say they have gathered 5,800 signatures on a petition and haven’t even looked beyond the immediate neighborhood.

In fact, most of the signatures have been gathered at the course.

Los Angeles-based Hollywood Park wants to develop the golf course in Cypress, which it owns, into an industrial park with retail shops, office space and perhaps a hotel and light manufacturing.

But the 550-member Men’s Club, which is based at the course, has been circulating a petition at the course’s clubhouse and at a few homes in the area to drum up opposition to the project. So far, 5,800 people--mostly golfers--have signed the document protesting development of the course, next to Los Alamitos Race Course.

Organizers plan to take their petition before the Cypress City Council, and they say they will circulate another petition throughout the city to get an initiative on the ballot if they are unsuccessful before the council.

Cypress Planning Director Christine Eynon said that she could not comment on the proposed development until the council receives a report on it. She did say, however, that the project would cover 160 acres. Neil Papiano, an attorney for the landowners, said it’s closer to 120 acres.

“This is the first I’ve heard of any problems,” Papiano, who represents Hollywood Real Estate Investment Trust, Hollywood Park’s parent firm, said in an interview. “I would assume that if they were interested, they would contact the company. At this point not one person has complained about it” to the company.

Roger Geyer, a former Men’s Club president and the petition’s main organizer, acknowledged that club members have not approached the course’s owners. He said Hollywood Park officials did not inform the club of the development, so members assumed their concerns would be ignored.

Papiano said the project is compatible with neighboring areas, where large industrial companies--such as McDonnell Douglas and the Mitsubishi Co.--are based.

“It would be the same as what’s on Katella, Walker and Cerritos,” he said, adding that nine holes of the golf course would remain in operation until later phases of the development are finished. Four ponds also would remain as part of the industrial park.

Although their primary interest is keeping the 100-acre golf course, Men’s Club spokesmen said that members and residents are concerned about increased density and the loss of habitat for waterfowl that use the park’s five ponds.

The golfers will present their arguments and petition when the City Council holds a public hearing on a re-zoning proposal--an initial step toward approving the development plans--at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the council’s chambers at 5275 Orange Ave.

If the council approves the zoning change, another option for golfers would be asking the city to build another course, Geyer said.

It’s too late to get an initiative on the November ballot by petition, Geyer said, so the golfers will seek a special election, if necessary. He said 15% of the city’s 21,408 registered voters would have to sign a petition for the city to call a special election.

“We haven’t had anyone refuse to sign the petition yet,” he said. “It’s a question of where our City Council wants to go.” An industrial park on the course, he added, would “change the character of the city.”

One of the course’s ponds already has been drained, said Jack Swank, 63, a Men’s Club member who feeds birds at the course each morning. He said he recently saw five birds die after hatching because they did not find water.

“They’re trying to get rid of the wildlife--that way they don’t have to answer to that when they turn it over for development,” he said. In addition, Swank said, a number of ducks, geese, sea gulls, turtles and other wildlife would be eliminated by development.

But Papiano said the industrial park actually would include more water than now exists at the course. He said the pond had been drained earlier for cleaning, but he did not know why it had been drained a second time. Hollywood Park employees could not provide an explanation, either.

He dismissed Swank’s account of birds dying: “That’s ridiculous. If (the birds) were in trouble, why didn’t he help them?”

Swank thinks citizens should take part in the decision to develop the golf course.

“You just can’t build a building to suit yourself,” he said. “It needs approval. It may suit them financially, but if the people of Cypress have a voice, they will not choose for it.”