Vote on Cypress Downs Report Postponed

The long-simmering controversy over development of a proposed 167-acre business park on land next to the Los Alamitos Race Track comes up for public hearing in Cypress tonight when the City Council faces the decision of whether to approve the development over the protests of preservationists.

Council members, meeting Tuesday night to consider the environmental impact report for the project, postponed a vote on the report until tonight. Council members then went into a lengthy executive session to discuss the result of negotiations earlier Tuesday with city officials in neighboring Los Alamitos.

Whether the council approves or rejects the so-called Cypress Downs project, the controversy over the site, one of the largest remaining open spaces in northwestern Orange County, is not likely to abate. Both the environmental report and the development project have drawn opposition from residents who say that the document is deficient and the project too dense.

A coalition of residents called Concerned Citizens of Cypress has said it may launch a recall move against council members who vote in favor of the development.

“We are not against development of the area, but it must be planned,” said Joyce Nicholson, chairwoman of the group. “We don’t want something like Century City on Katella Avenue. If the developers were to make changes, (the project) is probably something we could support. But not the way it is. They’re trying to put too much on the property.”

Jim Watson, a senior vice president of SDC Development of Newport Beach, said his company has worked hard to address concerns raised by residents. But he called members of Concerned Citizens “self-serving.”

“Their concerns change as soon as those concerns are addressed,” Watson said. “We have taken what they said were their concerns about open space, density and traffic congestion, and made significant improvements in the development. But once these things were addressed, they switched hats.”

Watson called the project a “superbly well-conceived and well-planned project that has received a tremendous amount of study, investigation and public input.” He also argued that approval of the project will eliminate all current litigation and will save the city money.

But the city of Los Alamitos, which borders part of the project site, also has expressed concerns about traffic congestion. Los Alamitos City Manager Michael A. Graziano said the city is negotiating with SDC Development and Cypress city officials over additional steps to mitigate the problem. Graziano added that the city has retained legal counsel to protect its interests.

The Cypress Downs project would include a 55-acre mixed-use business park, a 46-acre professional office complex, a hotel and 14 acres of general retail and commercial space. Two churches, Grace Church of Rossmoor and First Baptist Church of Los Alamitos, and Brethren Junior Senior High School have tentatively agreed to purchase about 30 acres of the land for their facilities.

The proposed site, now vacant land, surrounds the Los Alamitos Race Track and is bordered by Katella Avenue to the south, Cerritos Avenue to the north, Lexington Drive/Denni Street to the west and Walker Street on the east.

SDC Development agreed in May to buy a 300-acre parcel, which includes both the 140-acre race track and the vacant land, from Hollywood Park Realty Enterprises for $100 million.

The proposed sale, however, is contingent on approval by voters of the Cypress Downs project. If the sale goes through, Hollywood Park will continue to operate the race track on a lease-back arrangement.

SDC Development has agreed to provide $5 million in improvements to the race track and its facilities, and more than $10 million for public improvements that would ease traffic congestion in the area.

The company also reduced the density of the proposed development by nearly a fourth to 2.9 million square feet in an effort to forestall the kind of opposition generated by a previous development plan for the site. The council approved, then rejected the previous project after residents opposed it.

In 1986, Hollywood Park asked the Cypress City Council to rezone the vacant land around the race track, which had been a golf course, to allow development of a business park. The council then approved an amendment to the city’s general plan, which changed the status of the parcel from public or semipublic use to business park use.

The council later adopted an ordinance changing the zoning of the land to conform with its new business park status in the general plan. But preservationists and supporters of the old golf course mounted a petition drive challenging that ordinance. The council responded by rescinding the zoning change, but it did not change the general plan amendment.

To make such rezoning of the golf course property more difficult, a coalition of Cypress residents waged a petition campaign that led to voter approval of Measure D last November. The initiative sought to revert the parcel back to its original semipublic or public use, and required voter approval of any future zoning changes in the city.

Hollywood Park sued the city when it rescinded the zoning change, and in May an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Measure D invalid. The city has appealed that decision. And in the meantime, SDC Development and Hollywood Park have agreed to a citywide vote on the Cypress Downs project.