At fourth General Plan community workshop, residents express anger and frustration about land use

Residents from throughout Long Beach showed up Wednesday night for the City’s last of four workshops on the proposed update to the General Plan Land Use and Urban Design Elements. However, judging by the pointed questions and critical comments made during the public-input portion of the event, one would be hard-pressed to find a citizen who is happy with the plan.
The Oct. 18 workshop, which had been relocated in advance from the Expo Arts Center to Scherer Park, to better accommodate the several hundred expected attendees, according to officials, opened with comments from councilmembers Al Austin, Rex Richardson, Roberto Uranga and Suzie Price, all of whom implored those in attendance to participate in the discussion with calm and civility.
Linda Tatum, Planning Bureau manager, and Oscar Orci, deputy director of the Building and Safety Bureau, facilitated the workshop and began with a presentation that gave background information on the General Plan, as well as common misconceptions and concerns about it.
The General Plan is a broad, long-range policy document required by State law that guides future development and conservation while establishing the goals and directions the City will take to achieve the “vision of the community,” which is garnered through the various community workshops.
“Essentially, we have to update the General Plan because State law requires it,” Tatum said. “Not only is it a good idea, because the purpose of a General Plan is to really look at the city’s future, for the community and the residents to decide the vision for the future, and you can’t do that if you have a General Plan that’s too old, that doesn’t address the changing conditions in your community.”
Tatum added that the State recommends that cities update their plans every 10 years— but that’s only a guideline.
“If circumstances and conditions in the community change more frequently than that, then you update your General Plan based on those changing conditions,” Tatum said. “And just a point— given that it’s been 38 years since the City last updated its General Plan— this city has grown significantly, we didn’t have the Blue Line during the last General Plan update, we didn’t have online shopping during the last General Plan update. So, as you can see, things have changed significantly in this community, and we are in dire need to get an updated General Plan to reflect the current and modern environment that we live in today.”
City officials say the State also requires seven elements to be included within the plan: land use, mobility, housing, conservation, open space, noise and safety.
The update to the General Plan is aimed at guiding the city into “a more sustainable future over the next 23 years and to meet new state requirements and development principles,” according to officials.
After completion of the four community workshops, the Planning Commission will review, comment on and make recommendations to the city council on the proposal for deliberation and input before adoption.
According to city officials, the plan will: address demand for housing, employment and lifestyle choices for now and the future; guide where new development is located and what it should look like; protect the existing character of single-family neighborhoods; preserve and protect the environment for future generations; improve pedestrian experience and increase walkability; aim to reduce the number of residents (76 percent) who commute out of Long Beach for work; and encourage larger open spaces by allowing a moderate increase in height limits in transit-oriented and mixed-use areas.
Additionally, the land-use element incorporates a characteristic called “PlaceTypes,” which are the physical features and traits that define unique places, such as the size of a structure in relation to other buildings in the area, development patterns, accessibility, infrastructure and streetscape design. PlaceTypes involve how a development looks, as well as how it relates to the streets, sidewalks and neighboring buildings, which is an aberration from the former approach of regulating structures based only on their height and square footage.

Tatum said some of the “misconceptions” expressed by residents at previous workshops were: that the maps associated with it are already final; that if the plan is adopted, new buildings will be constructed immediately; that popular shopping centers will be replaced with housing; that high-rise buildings will be constructed in single-family neighborhoods; and that the City is seeking to forcibly destroy churches and replace them with high-density housing.
She explained the reasons that those concerns are indeed misconceptions, but numerous residents who waited in queue to approach the microphone and ask questions or make comments still expressed anger, confusion and frustration about high-density housing and tall buildings changing the landscape, safety, traffic congestion and parking availability in single-family areas.
Next week, the Signal Tribune will share some of the remarks residents made during the fourth workshop.
For more information about the General Plan update and next steps, to view the Land Use and Urban Design Element drafts, or to take a short survey, visit longbeach.gov/lueude2040.