Before Cypress was even a city, there was Arnold Cypress Park.
The park, in the northern end of the city, is home to the Cypress Girls Softball League, pickleball matches, picnics and other games. But the 74-year-old park presents public safety concerns, city officials say, due to its unlighted courts, aging infrastructure and difficult-to-monitor areas that lead to vandalism and other issues.
So the City Council has greenlit $33.5 million to improve the park — a project that will require it to be stripped of its current amenities and rebuilt with new ones.
Construction will begin in December and be completed in early 2025, according to the city’s timeline.
The new park will include four softball fields, with three of them grouped in a circle in the center of the park, meant to be convenient for parents with multiple children who play in the league, said Jeff Draper, the city’s director of Recreation and Community Services.
It will also feature lighted volleyball and basketball courts, eight lighted pickleball courts, a half-mile walking path, a fitness area, a playground with shade, new restrooms and concession stand and ample parking so visitors won’t need to park on the neighborhood’s streets, officials said. News trees will also be planted.
The new Arnold Cypress Park is also designed in a way to provide improved visibility for law enforcement to be able to see into the park from the street and parking lots, said Draper, and includes more lighting and security cameras.
“The goal of the park is basically to be a place where families can spend the day — whether they’re there for softball, pickleball, a picnic, whatever it may be,” said Draper. “Our goal is to make it a destination park, and that’s what we feel we have done with this.”
“The transformation of this 74-year-old park is two decades in the making. We’re not talking about replacing a swing or adding a shade cover; we’re talking about starting from below the ground up and addressing public safety and quality of life issues that have plagued the park and its surrounding area for far too long,” said Mayor Anne Mallari.
Improving the park — the only one in Cypress north of Lincoln Avenue with athletic fields — has been in the works for several years. The City Council began planning for its replacement in 2015, but a series of reports about its condition have been commissioned over the last 20. Plans for its replacement a few years ago were put on hold after the Los Alamitos Race Course donated the land that became Lexington Park.
The surrounding neighborhood, said Mallari, is directly impacted by the quality of the park. “The quality of the environment affects how people behave in that environment,” she said. “If we are not maintaining it, we’re not rehabbing it, then we’re going to have some problems in terms of behavior in that park, and that affects the people who live on Watson and Delong streets.”
Fielding the park’s costs
But like many things for the Cypress City Council, the recent decision to OK the Arnold Cypress Park project to the tune of $33.5 million was not a unanimous one.
Councilmembers Frances Marquez and David Burke voted against the project, citing the price and financing plan.
The funding comes from a loan the city is giving to the Cypress Recreation and Park District. The district, a staff report says, has the financial ability to repay the loan “without reducing services or maintenance levels,” but it will not be able to take on another replacement or major rehabilitation project “for the foreseeable future.” Albeit, no such projects are in the works as the Arnold Cypress Park is the last of its facility replacement program, the staff report says.
“When we say this project is affordable, we do so based on a thorough analysis of the city and district’s cash flow,” said Matt Burton, director of Financial and Administrative Services. “We’re only using resources earmarked for capital purposes.”
Still, Burke says he believes the city could have done more to attempt to lower that $33.5 million price tag or sought alternatives to fully replacing the park. (Two alternative plans were offered, but were not recommended by city staff. Burke called those plans “back-of-the-envelope estimates,” meaning they were just rough outlines and not very detailed for consideration.)
“I think everybody agrees that Arnold Cypress Park needs real improvements, and we want nice softball fields there,” Burke said, later adding: “There should have been a more thorough exploration of alternatives to see if we could accomplish more of the core goals of making the park better and having nicer softball fields and not spending $33.5 million.”
“I really believe in the ability of people to be creative and to solve problems and figure things out while being good stewards of our tax dollars,” he said. “I have to believe there’s a way to improve Arnold Cypress Park and give our softball girls good fields for significantly less.”
Burke noted how the estimated price for the park project has increased exponentially over the last few years. And he suggested there wasn’t enough time for the public to weigh in on the project with the City Council agenda, which included the price, posted just four days before the meeting.
City staff said inflation, supply chain issues and commodity shortages in the last several years have led to the increased construction costs.
During the council’s recent meeting, Burke suggested revising the amount the district is responsible for by having the city fund outright some of the project. That idea was rejected in a 3-2 vote, however.
“I’m concerned about saddling the Recreation and Park District with the entire loan on its own,” said Burke. “It simply doesn’t have nearly as much money as the city. I’m worried that our investment in Arnold Cypress Park will prevent improvements at other parks or adding amenities at other parks in the future.”
The loan is to be repaid, beginning in 2025, in $2 million annual installments over 20 years. It includes an annual interest rate of 2%.
The Recreation and Park District’s property tax revenues for 2023-24 are projected to exceed operating expenses by $2.45 million, according to the staff report.
As of June 30, according to that report, the city of Cypress had about $72.5 million for capital projects in its infrastructure reserve bank.
Funding for the park includes about $28 million for a contract with Los Angeles Engineering — the firm also completed the Mackay Park in Cypress as well as the Veterans Sports Park in Tustin — for constructing the park and $875,000 to Griffin Structures, Inc. for construction management and inspection services. An additional $6 million is also allocated for other construction costs, according to the staff report.
City Manager Peter Grant kicked off the recent discussion about Arnold Cypress Park by noting that someone asked him as he was walking into the building if the City Council really was going to vote since it had been a discussion for more than 20 years.
And once councilmembers approved the project that evening, cheers broke out throughout the chambers.
“On any given day at the park, close to 1,000 people whose primary focus is softball use the amenities at Arnold Park. For many years, we have heard that Arnold Cypress Park would be getting rehabilitated,” said Amy Behen, the president of Cypress Girls Softball League.
“The time is now.”
