Last Tuesday nights special council meeting in Marina signified the end of the development project known as Cypress Knolls, may it rest in peace. The current Council majority again pulled defeat out of the jaws of success and continues to put the City on a course of financial disaster.
Cypress Knolls was conceived in the late 90’s as a senior development to serve the entire region. It was originally to use many of the structures already in place. These structures still remain today as dilapidated, decaying and dangerous buildings fenced off from public access. For a variety of reasons, including yet another lawsuit filed against a development project in Marina, the project stalled and was never built.
Several years later, another company came in with an updated plan to remove all the buildings and develop a new senior community on the same Cypress Knolls property. As the economy slowed this deal eventually fell apart and once again the project stalled and was never built.
Then two years ago the City of Marina started the process all over. They held public hearings and asked the Community what they wanted in a senior community on the property. As a result two developers came forward with concepts that would tear down all the blighted and dangerous buildings, fulfill the needs of the community and create a beautiful senior oriented community that created jobs while diversifying our City economy.
The process had many steps and stumbles along the way but it included a community selection committee (which I chaired), an investigation (on-going) and a decision to start over with a smaller project, then to reconsider and to choose one developer, than another re-consideration and a final decision last Tuesday to start the process all over again and seek developers for a smaller project.
The process reminds me of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown, this time she will hold the ball for the kick. Of course, Lucy pulls the ball away leaving Charlie Brown on the ground wondering what happened again this time. The problem is this is not a cartoon, this is real and it has real implications for the citizens of Marina.
First, the blighted buildings on the Cypress Knolls property will be there for years to come. Next, due to this decision our City’s budget situation will continue to get worse. There will be no developer fees, no reimbursements, no property taxes and no jobs for many years to come, if at all.
Our community’s image in the development community is severally tarnished. After all, how would you feel after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, following all the rules then to be told that we changed our minds and to go away?
So with the Cypress Knolls project years away again (if ever), the Mayor’s highly touted Eco Village dead (what, no one told you that before?) and no new revenue generated over the past four years, our City Council will have little option but to continue to cut services in the future. This will mean cutting core services such as police, fire and recreation even though our citizens voted to tax themselves to keep this from happening.
So now the City has few choices ahead. They can continue to cut our core services or they will need to sell the Preston and Abrams Park communities to cover the City expenses until the real estate market recovers in California. There are few options left and further delays of projects such as Cypress Knolls will force that decision.
More later
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