Golfers Threaten Initiative Drive to Block Development of Business Park

Angry golfers said Wednesday that they plan a initiative drive to block development of a city-approved 169-acre business park that will mean closure of the Los Alamitos Golf Course in Cypress.

The Cypress City Council approved the controversial project on a 3-2 vote late Tuesday night.

Representatives of the Men’s Club, a 550-member organization based at the Cypress golf course, vowed Wednesday to try to halt the construction despite promises by the city that a replacement course is planned.

Golfer Jack Swank said the group’s concern about the loss of a golf course is secondary to concern about loss of open space in the city. “After all, they are destroying 47% of the greenbelt in Cypress,” he said.

In addition to the initiative drive, Swank said, opponents of the plan already have distributed 15,000 flyers “all over Cypress” targeting Councilman Richard Partin, one of three council members who voted for the development. Partin is running for reelection.

Councilman John Kanel, who had voted to tentatively approve the plan last month and tried to postpone action, reversed his position and joined Councilman Cornelius M. Coronado Jr. in a losing 3-2 vote against the business park Tuesday night.

‘Flaws in This Plan’

Kanel said he reluctantly approved the plan earlier, pending solutions to some problems, including what he called inadequate parking. Although most were solved, he said, “there are flaws in this plan.”

Kanel denied that his own reelection campaign influenced him to change his position on the project. He said he sought to postpone a vote until after the Nov. 4 election to allow “time for everyone to cool their heels,” time for more study of the issues and “rational discussion.”

During Tuesday night’s meeting, the council directed staff members to revise the parking plan and add 1,100 unpaved parking spaces to the proposed 8,500 paved parking stalls, Cypress spokesman Randy Economy said.

Mayor Otto J. Lacayo said the golfers’ concerns will be answered with a new golf course proposed for the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center.

The new golf course would fill the gap once the Los Alamitos course is closed to make way for the $100-million project, which would include office, light industrial and commercial buildings and possibly a hotel on land next to Los Alamitos Race Track.

$75,000 a Year for City

While city officials have endorsed the project saying it would generate about $750,000 annually for city coffers, golfers have protested the development, saying they are skeptical that a replacement course would ever be constructed.

“All we’ve heard is words,” Swank said.

When the issue first came to light, the city received a petition with about 4,600 signatures, Lacayo said.

“There was one golfer from Italy, one from Tijuana and about 800 from the city of Cypress. They just asked everyone who used the golf course to sign,” Lacayo said.

Lacayo criticized the tactics of some of the golfers’ use of “hit flyers” and what he called “threats” and “coercion.”

Swank said Partin “targeted himself” by voting for the development.

To the city, the new development will mean more than additional revenue. It also represents about 7,500 new jobs and public improvements in the area, according to city planners.

Hollywood Park owns both the golf course and the adjacent Los Alamitos Race Track in Cypress.

At a council meeting last month, an attorney for the golfers accused Hollywood Park of eventually planning to close the race track for new development. But Hollywood Park owner Marge Everett said the company plans to spend $5 million in improvements at the track.

Lacayo said residents decided in 1974 that the area should be targeted for light industrial and commercial projects.

At the time, a developer proposed apartment complexes, condominiums and some light-industrial buildings, among other projects, for a 550-acre parcel next to park. The proposal ignited considerable controversy, Lacayo said. Voters defeated that plan, which Lacayo said indicated their desire for the area “to be the commercial, industrial base of Cypress.”