If you have not been paying attention to Cypress city planning lately, you have some catching up to do.

Three major development efforts are moving at once, and together they will change what a large chunk of the city looks like over the next decade. A new city manager starts Monday to oversee all of it.

The race course land is getting built out

The most visible piece is the Los Alamitos Race Course site. Cypress voters approved a mixed-use redevelopment plan for the 150-plus acres by a 63.6 percent margin, authorizing housing, a town center, retail, office space, and parks on land that has hosted horse racing for decades. The track itself stays open — the redevelopment covers the surrounding property and future phases after racing eventually winds down.

In July 2024, the City Council voted 4-1 to place Measure S on the November ballot. Voters passed it. The plan now allows up to 1,926 residential units on roughly 134 acres, up from 1,250 under the previous specific plan. That 676-unit increase was added specifically to meet the city's state-mandated housing goals.

The city is currently preparing a Draft Environmental Impact Report for the full buildout project. A public workshop on phasing and infrastructure fees is targeted for September 2026.

The business park got a full overhaul

South of the race course, the city completed a separate effort: consolidating five aging specific plans — some dating to the 1970s — into a single Cypress Business Park Specific Plan covering about 450 acres.

The new plan does something the old ones did not. It explicitly bans logistics facilities — the kind of high-turnover fulfillment and distribution warehouses that have spread across Southern California over the past decade. Distribution centers can still apply for a conditional use permit, but the presumption has flipped. Applicants now have to make the case.

The change was deliberate. Residents and council members had grown frustrated with truck traffic and air quality concerns from logistics operations. The new plan favors advanced manufacturing, corporate offices, and warehousing that does not generate the same volume of truck trips.

Recent additions to the business park tell the story. Murray Company relocated to Cypress, bringing 663 jobs. Raymond West followed. Amazon built a logistics facility, though that project predated the new plan. Along Lincoln Avenue, the plan also allows mixed-use development up to 50 feet in height to satisfy state housing requirements.

The bigger number: 3,936 units by 2029

The race course buildout and the business park rezoning are both pieces of a larger obligation. Cypress is required under its 2021-2029 Housing Element — certified by the state in 2022 — to plan for 3,936 new homes.

The numbers break down across three areas: 1,643 units along the Lincoln Avenue corridor, 676 units added via Measure S at the race course site, and 321 units near Katella and Siboney. Together they hit the state target.

That does not mean 3,936 units will actually get built by 2029. Housing elements plan for capacity, not construction. But the zoning is now in place.

New city manager starts Monday

The person who will manage all of this starts work March 30. The City Council voted unanimously on February 23 to hire Shannon DeLong as Cypress's tenth city manager — and its first woman to hold the role in the city's 70-year history.

DeLong comes from Whittier, where she served as assistant city manager since 2018, and before that held leadership roles in Downey for more than a decade. Her contract runs three years at $315,000 annually.

She takes over from interim City Manager Sean Joyce, who stepped in after longtime City Manager Peter Grant resigned in 2025. DeLong inherits a city mid-construction on three overlapping planning fronts, a $27 million pump station project at the business park, and a council that shifted its meeting schedule to Tuesdays in March 2026.

Planning Director Alicia Velasco has been the constant through the transitions, overseeing the Lincoln Avenue and business park work. That work continues regardless of who is running city hall.