State to Honor Senior Housing Effort

For years, a two-acre site on Grindlay street was vacant.

Then an innovative program by the City Council, Cypress School District trustees and developer Leon Hyter transformed it into Cypress Park Senior Community, a housing center for older residents, a cooperative effort that will be recognized today by the state.

Gov. Pete Wilson is to present Cypress officials a Helen Putnam Award for Excellence. The honor is sponsored by the League of California Cities, which annually picks governmental projects for special honor.

“Part of the focus of our awards is to recognize collaboration among local governments,” said Debbie Thornton, spokeswoman for the league. Cypress is the only Orange County city winning one of the awards this year, she said.

The land now occupied by the 126-apartment senior housing project at 9021 Grindlay St. once was part of the school district headquarters. The city acquired part of the land to build a community senior center, returning the remaining two acres to the school district for the housing project.

“The school district needed a new revenue stream, and the city needed housing for seniors,” Councilman Walter K. Bowman said. “This blended the two.”

Bowman said part of the income from the senior apartments will go to the Cypress Education Foundation, the school district’s nonprofit arm. School Supt. William Eller said the housing complex is expected to return about $100,000 a year to the school system.

“It’s really great for the community. It worked out perfectly,” school board member Ellen Friedmann said.

Mayor Tom Carroll said the project helps the city by filling part of state-imposed quotas for low- and moderate-income housing. “It gives seniors a nice place to live at a reasonable cost and close to the Senior Center,” he said.