Cypress Will Vote on Zoning for Downs

Cypress residents will vote Tuesday on the controversial Cypress Downs, a proposed 167-acre project to transform a former public golf course into a business and recreational complex next to Los Alamitos Race Track.

The measure--the only item on the special election ballot--is the culmination of years of debate and legal wrangling over how one of the largest remaining open spaces in northwestern Orange County should be developed.

Supporters of the project have outspent opponents by nearly 5 to 1, pumping more than $215,000 into a mail and publicity campaign. Campaign records show that all but about $645 of the money was contributed by SDC Co., the Newport Beach firm that will buy and develop the land if the measure to allow a zoning change passes.

“This has huge importance for us. There are a lot of things at stake in this,” said 27-year resident Don Galloway, co-chairman of Cypress Citizens for Sensible Growth, which urges a “yes” vote.

Cypress Downs will produce $748,000 annually for the city, create about 7,000 jobs and provide $10 million in traffic improvements along Katella Avenue, Galloway said.

“And none of it costs taxpayers a dime,” Galloway said. “The entire project will be funded by the developer.”

Galloway conceded that the development will increase the traffic in the area. “But with the traffic improvements, it is going to make (traffic conditions) better,” he said.

On the other side of the issue is the Concerned Citizens of Cypress for Greenbelt and Open Spaces Preservation. This group has raised only $25,989, which as of Feb. 3, when its financial report was filed, was not even enough to pay the committee’s $38,870 in campaign debts.

The opponents say Cypress Downs will increase traffic and lower property values.

“With all of their money,” Councilwoman Gail Kerry said of the revenue raised by the development, “they will not be able to correct the traffic that they will be creating.”

Roger Geyer, treasurer of the group, maintains the increased traffic is something “we shouldn’t have to live with.”

“All I see are a bunch of people leaving work and running into the patrons of the race track,” he said.

The organization’s president, Joyce Nicholson, said her group is not opposed to any development of the property, just “this specific plan.”

“It’s too dense . . . and too much traffic,” Nicholson said.

“If we approve this plan, we will forever lose our recreationally zoned property and leave future generations justly accusing us with the question, ‘Why?’ ” Nicholson said in a statement appearing in the official sample ballot.

The Cypress Downs project includes a business park, an office complex, a hotel, retail and commercial space and 31 acres for churches and schools. Under the current zoning, only churches and schools are allowed.

Cypress Downs would surround the Los Alamitos Race Track, bordered on the south by Katella Avenue, on the north by Cerritos Avenue, on the west by Denni Street and on the east by Walker Street.

SDC Development agreed in May, 1988, to buy the entire 300-acre parcel, including the 140-acre race track, from Hollywood Park Realty Enterprises for $100 million. The sale, however, is contingent upon approval of the zoning change by voters Tuesday.

If the sale goes through, Hollywood Park will continue to operate the race track under an agreement with SDC.

The Cypress Downs project is scaled down from what Hollywood Park originally sought.

In 1986 Hollywood Park asked the Cypress City Council to rezone the land for a business park, the Cypress Plaza, which the city did.

By late 1987, Hollywood Park had closed the Los Alamitos Golf Course next to the race track. But preservationists and supporters of the golf course mounted a petition drive and persuaded the council to rescind the zone change.

Moreover, a coalition of Cypress residents in November, 1987, won voter approval of Measure D, which returned the site’s zoning to semipublic or public use and required voter approval of any further zone changes for the parcel.

Hollywood Park sued the city for rescinding the zoning change, and last May an Orange County Superior Court judge invalidated Measure D. The city has appealed that ruling.

Meanwhile, SDC Development and Hollywood Park agreed to put a scaled-down proposal to a citywide vote.

Should Tuesday’s ballot measure pass, Hollywood Park and SDC have agreed to terminate lawsuits still pending against the city, according to a statement by the city attorney in the sample ballot.

“SDC went into this with a different focus,” Galloway said. “They wanted more corporate-type businesses.”

The original plan called for 3.7 million square feet of building area. The new Cypress Downs plan provides for 2.6 million square feet.

The original Cypress Plaza project was expected to generate 45,000 total vehicle trips, according to an environmental impact report prepared by the city. The smaller Cypress Downs project will generate only marginally fewer trips--43,568, according to the report.

However, the project calls for traffic management efforts such as ride-share and car-pool plans by employers. Those, coupled with physical improvements to Katella Avenue, mean “acceptable levels of services are anticipated,” according to the environmental report.

But traffic is only one problem opponents have with the Cypress Downs project.

Nicholson argues that property values will decline because “people don’t want to buy homes next to a commercial-industrial development.”

However, Cypress Downs supporter and City Councilwoman Cecilia L. Age, a vice president of operations in the real estate division of a bank, argues that the development will improve the area, consequently raising property values.

“If anything, the houses are going to appreciate,” Age maintains. Property values decline only when homes directly back up an industrial area, she said.

As the debate has raged, Councilman John Kanel has been distressed by the schism created by the controversy.

“This matter is to be decided by the voters on Valentine’s Day, a day that’s supposed to be full of love and happiness,” Kanel said. “But instead, there are many people in this community who are divided. This is very unfortunate.”