UPDATE: Los Al Council Opposes Plan for Cypress Truck Stop

Los Alamitos doesn’t want a 33-acre truck stop next to the city, the City Council announced Thursday night.

They aren’t the only ones.

More than 20 residents attended a special City Council meeting to oppose a plan by Prologis, an industrial developer, to build a distribution center/trucking terminal complex at Katella Avenue and Enterprise Drive on the Cypress side of the city border. Most of the truck traffic would appear to impact Los Alamitos, officials said.

The Los Al City Council unanimously opposed the project after a closed session with city legal counsel Thursday. (California law allows for closed session discussions on lit­ig­a­tion issues, but councils must announce any action taken, which Los Al’s council did at about 9:20 p.m.)

“It was a unanimous opposition to the project on Enterprise and Katella, and we’ve instructed city staff to take appropriate action,” Mayor Warren Kusumoto said after the vote. “There are multiple reasons to not a support a project such as this, traffic being one. Katella is a parking lot at rush hour. I can't imagine having additional trucks on that.”

Because the night’s agenda item described the closed session as a conference about the "initiation of litigation," does “appropriate action” include legal action? Kusumoto wouldn't say. 

In a text message, Councilman Troy Edgar said the council directed the city attorney to begin "taking actions to protect the city." Patch will try to follow up Friday.

A number of residents spoke against the project during the public comments portion of the meeting. At one point, someone asked how many people opposed the project and more than 20 people in the audience stood up.

Among their many concerns, commenters said increased diesel fumes would hurt city residents, especially children, and the trucks would damage Los Al streets.

“I hope this is deep in your hearts: You are here to protect us, and we need you to protect us,” 47-year resident Jeff Hubert told the City Council. “It will be a major negative impact on our quality of life that no one company or city should have the right to inflict.”

Others criticized the Cypress City Council’s quick approval of a zoning change that would allow the project to go forward and said they felt Cypress officials and people in affected neighborhoods in both cities were not informed about the planned truck stop.

“I just do not understand how the biggest project Cypress will ever know, the (Cypress) City Council and the people of Cypress don’t know anything about it,” said Los Alamitos resident Jody Shloss. “How did they get to be City Council (members) and not know what's going on in their city. How does that work? It’s just incomprehensible.”

The project also had a number of residents and city leaders up in arms at the last City Council meeting earlier this month. 

Some Rossmoor residents also worried about the effects of the project. In an email before the meeting, the Rossmoor Predator Management Team said a number of their members had voiced concerns “this truck terminal will add to the traffic, pollution and safety of motorists on Katella Boulevard."

The RPMT encouraged members to "direct their comments/statements/protests to 33acreproject@ci.cypress.ca.us."

Atle Erlingsson, a Prologis spokesman, said the company is working on a traffic study to better understand the project’s effects on the community.

“We are not trying to force this project through or push it down anyone’s throat,” said Erlingsson.

The company held an open house meeting last week to get community input on the project and values feedback from residents, Erlingsson said.

“We are trying to be a good neighbor,” he added.

Erlingsson said the company had a reputation of working well with surrounding communities. The company has more than 57 million square feet of industrial property in Southern California, and it doesn’t compile that kind of track record by barging in with unwelcome projects, he said.

To read the brief agenda item for the meeting, click here. The meeting began about 6 p.m. at City Hall, 3191 Katella Ave.

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