Residents Blast Planned 33-Acre Truck Terminal

Concerned, angry or worried, a number of local residents showed up at a Cypress church Wednesday to express their views on the environmental impacts of a proposed 33-acre Cypress truck terminal planned along the Los Alamitos border.

Between 80 and 100 people attended the Cypress scoping meeting, a get-together aimed at collecting local comments for a draft environmental impact report on the planned distribution center/truck terminal complex at Katella Avenue and Enterprise Drive. Attendees included residents from Garden Grove, Los Alamitos and Cypress. Critics say the plan, proposed by industrial developer Prologis, would increase traffic, damage Los Alamitos, Cypress and Garden Grove streets and increase health risks, especially for children. 

Christian Arfwedson, who has lived in Los Alamitos for 17 years, said the project would only add to the pollution the community already suffers from the freeways, the military base and the overhead flights to Long Beach Airport.

“This type of an industrial development doesn’t belong in the middle of residential areas,” Arfwedson said. “We don’t need any more emissions.”

Arfwedson, who teaches nursing at Cerritos College, said that she could site multiple studies showing the dangers of diesel emissions and that they increase the risk of heart disease, lung disease and cancer.

Cypress resident Doug Ramsey lives less than a half mile northeast of the project and said Prologis described the truck stop plan to Cypress residents as “an innocuous semi-residential project” and “ light industrial” when it was actually “nothing of the sort.”

“Cypress residents got hoodwinked,” Ramsay said. “Actually I‘m going to use the term conned. “

Many attendees said they were upset that no members of the Cypress City Council or Prologis showed up to Wednesday’s meeting.

Cypress officials did not respond to emails and calls for comment late Wednesday night.

Attendees said they were also upset that the presentation on the issue was a looping PowerPoint production without the opportunity for questions and answers. 

Los Alamitos Mayor Pro Tem Gerri Graham-Mejia said she was “deeply, deeply sadden by” the manner in which Cypress conducted the scoping meeting, including the lack of attendance by Cypress City Council members and the impersonal presentation format.

Local activists said that anyone who wants to get involved can email volunteer@savecypress.com for more information. 

Throughout the meeting, residents spoke and sometimes yelled at Doug Hawkins, Cypress planning manager, the one city staff member who attended.

“You don’t need an EIR, you need to nix a proposal like this!” said Arfwedson, who grilled Hawkins on his opinion about the matter and whether he thought the project was safe for children and other residents.

As the planning manager, Hawkins said he couldn’t offer the crowd an opinion on the proposed project. City Council members don’t normally attend scoping meetings, he said. The meeting is about collecting input from the community, he added.

“I understand that they’re upset about it, and it’s my job to listen to their opinion,” Hawkins said.

While he wouldn’t go into specifics, Councilman Troy Edgar said the city of Los Alamitos was prepared to combat the project.

“It’s worth it to fight this,” Edgar said. “We’re going to go all in.”

Recently the Los Alamitos city Council voted 5-0 to oppose the development. According to Edgar, they also told the city manager and the city attorney to begin “taking actions to protect the city" from the proposed development.

The last day to submit comments by email, phone, fax or hand delivery before city staff begin drafting the EIR is April 10.

For mail, address letters to the City of Cypress, Community Development Department, 5175 Orange Avenue Cypress, California, Attention Mr. Douglas Hawkins AICP, Planning Manager.

Emails can be sent to33acreproject@ci.cypress.ca.us, and the fax number is 714-229-0154.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENTS

What do you think of the project? What do you expect from the cities of Cypress and Los Alamitos with respect to the proposal?

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