At its virtual monthly meeting on Monday, Jan. 4, the Wrigley Association voted for drafting a letter in solidarity with the Riverpark Coalition who is asking the Long Beach City Council for an Environmental Impact Review of the controversial Pacific Place Project.
The Riverpark Coalition is a neighborhood group made up of local residents from the Los Cerritos, Wrigley, Cal Heights and the Bixby Knolls neighborhoods.
Kimberly Walters, a representative with the coalition, gave a presentation on the decades-long fight to secure the local parcels of land. They say the parcels were originally slated by the City of Long Beach to be transformed into what Walters called “essentially the West side version of El Dorado Park.”
In 2018, there was a concept plan for what was to become the “Wrigley Heights River Park site” according to the Lower L.A. River Revitalization Plan. The plan gave recommendations for the 58-acre site that included wetlands, a neighborhood park and pathways for bicyclists and walkers.
There were also recommendations for improvements for land around Willow Street and at points south toward the river’s mouth including a new “bridge park” aligned with Hill Street and bird-watching platforms.
“But all of a sudden our city, in just the last couple of years, has reversed course,” Walters said.
Instead, the land once designated as an “open space” was changed to “industrial” and most recently “commercial storage” as it was sold to a developer who plans to build a three-story 152,745-square foot self-storage building with 1,132 units. The development would also include a 2,153-square foot car wash, 11 truck-loading bays, and an recreational vehicle (RV) parking facility with 578 parking spaces and a 5,000-square foot office space.
Other anticipated industrial uses include a single-story 77,000-square foot building consisting of 73,500-square feet of warehouse space and 3,500-square feet of office space.
“We need our green space. We’ve been waiting for our green space, and it’s not okay to build on a toxic dump site without an environmental impact report, whether you’re a developer, or whether you’re the City building a park, whoever does anything there, we have to have an environmental impact report first,” Walters said.
The site was formerly used as a toxic landfill for the petroleum extraction industry in which chemicals, toxic waste and sewage discharge from Signal Hill and Long Beach had been dumped. The land has since been covered with about 30 feet of topsoil.
The coalition is fighting to stop the commercial development over the toxic landfill as they state this was originally an opportunity to add open green space. They say the space would extend the L.A. River Nature Restoration, improve the quality of life of local residents and save property values.
“This is our green space and this is the land that is supposed to have been our buffer to the 405 to help us clean the air in Long Beach,” Walters emphasized. “As you know, along the 710 we live on what’s called the diesel death corridor. We have some of the worst air in the entire nation and greening these parcels would go a long way to helping us mitigate the smog that we experienced in this area.”
Walters pointed out the drastic difference in green, open space between West and East Long Beach.
“You can see the few green parcels that we have whereas East Long Beach has the 400 acres of El Dorado Park, and they have the (Colorado) Lagoon, they have Hartwell,” she said. “If you compare per capita, the amount of green space in West Long Beach and East Long Beach, it’s pretty dismal on our side of Long Beach.”
Another concern aside the loss of potential green space is the fact that city council is allowing the developer to proceed without a proper Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
“The City is attempting to let this developer build here, without doing what’s called an Environmental Impact Report, an EIR, and is instead attempting to let them get away with what’s called an MMD, a Mitigated Negative Declaration. But these parcels of land are the dirtiest in Long Beach,” Walters said. “And if there’s any piece of land in the city that deserves to have an Environmental Impact Report done in order to protect the nearby residents, it’s this one.”
“There’s been a lot of backroom negotiations going on and the City, they’re really not doing their due diligence here,” Walters said. “Enough is enough.”
Although the particular parcel of land is within Al Austin’s eight district, she also encouraged the association and other community members to write letters to not only Austin but their respective councilmembers and the mayor in favor of not moving forward with the development. People can also support by donating to their GoFundMe and signing their petition.
“We have been lobbying the City to reverse their position on this and to stop what’s happening here. And so we’ve come to you to ask you to join our cause, to put together your voices, to ask your councilmember, and the other councilmembers and the mayor, to go back to what the original plan was, which was for the city to purchase, and green these properties,” Walters said.
Walters also stated that the coalition will take action with a lawsuit if the city council does vote in favor of the developer.
“When there’s lead and arsenic in the soil, and there’s toxic sludge underneath the soil, you can’t build here without an environmental impact report,” she said.
Walters suggests sending letters by January 17 as that is the earliest day the item would usually be included in the city council agenda, 30 days since the last Planning Commision meeting.
Wrigley Association meetings are held on the first Monday of every month.
1 comment
Comments are closed.