This series, Broken Promises, will explore the loss of these spaces in Long Beach, the impact on the surrounding communities, broken promises from the City and what local residents are doing to preserve what little is left.
Read the first chapter here.
From an oil drilling site to a golf course and later an abandoned lot, 3701 North Pacific Place has undergone several changes over its 100-year history.
The 14-acre land adjacent to the Los Angeles River, the 405 Freeway and the Metro A-line is one of the last undeveloped land parcels and opportunities for green space left in the city.
Residents have long expected this site to become a public park, as laid out in City planning documents – until developers made a proposal in 2020 that would transform the property into a self-storage facility with office spaces, an RV parking lot and a car wash.
Over the past five years, local organizations composed of residents and environmentalists have battled with the City against the development of Pacific Place, citing environmental concerns and the lack of a thorough report assessing the damage the development would inflict on the site’s natural habitat and surrounding community.
Meanwhile, the City has opposed the establishment of a park, citing high land remediation costs and the site’s private ownership standing as primary concerns. Yet, environmental groups insist funds are available through state grants and other resources.
Now, two lawsuits later and a win that temporarily delayed development, the City has approved the Pacific Place Project to move forward — but not without ongoing community resistance.
“Our goal to help support these communities on the Western side is to try to achieve more park equity, more green space equity, and every little bit matters,” said Benjamin Harris, a staff attorney for environmental nonprofit LA Waterkeeper. “If you don’t build permanent green space at this park, a Pacific Place site, where else can you build it if the City of Long Beach is supporting these permanent development structures on all of the available open space in western Long Beach already?”
The History of Pacific Place
Bordered by Los Cerritos and Wrigley Elementary schools, 3701 North Pacific Place sits on a former floodplain that received heavy inundations from the river in the early 1900s.
In the 1920s, the land was developed into an oil brine treatment facility and oil drilling site, leading to contaminated soil and toxins that remains on site today.
Following significant flooding from the LA River in 1938 that killed over 100 people, according to the Pacific Research Institute, the river was channelized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They lined 51 miles of the river with concrete to direct rainwater to the ocean and prevent future flooding.
After oil activities ceased in the ‘50s, the land was partially treated in the ‘70s with fill soil. The site was then transformed into a private golf course, the Long Beach Golf Learning Center, in the 1990s, which closed down around 2014.
The City and the site developer have cited the contaminated grounds as reason not to build a park due to high remediation costs required to treat the soil.
Since then, the lot has remained vacant, prompting concerns from the community regarding illegal activities including offroading, racing, garbage dumping and fireworks, as well as homeless encampments.
The land has a long history of private ownership, as it was owned by Oil Operators, Inc. during its use as an oil drilling facility in the ‘20s, and was later purchased by developers for the golf range. Artesia Acquisition Company purchased the site in 2019 to pursue the self-storage facility project.
The Beginning of a Five-Year Battle
Artesia Acquisitions Company, under InSite Property Group, proposed the project in April 2020, with the City Planning Commission approving it in December of that year. In April 2021, the Long Beach City Council approved the project almost unanimously, with the exception of a no vote from Councilmember Megan Kerr.
The project was approved with a Mitigated Negative Declaration – a statement claiming the project will cause no significant environmental harm – sparking retaliation from the community, as no environmental impact report was conducted.
LA Waterkeeper and Riverpark Coalition sued the City in May 2021, demanding the full environmental impact report under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
In late 2022, the court ruled in favor of the environmental groups, requiring the city to develop a full report assessing the environmental risks of the four-story, 206,756-square-foot project.
A draft was made available for public review in July 2024, prompting public comments from several environmental organizations and community residents. The City then released its final draft in May 2025, which was approved by the Council in August, despite concerns that the report did not fully address environmental issues.
In response, LA Waterkeeper and Riverpark Coalition filed another lawsuit in September, alleging the review was insufficient under CEQA by failing to provide a proper analysis of the impact on local wildlife, health risks and future flooding risk.
The second lawsuit has stalled the project development once again, continuing the years-long battle.
“We are seeking a court to order the city to conduct a more wholesome environmental review,” Harris said. “We don’t believe the public has been fully informed of the consequences of building a self-storage RV warehouse at this location, and we would want to see that environmental review address all of the concerns that we raise in our petition.”
What Happened to the Proposed Park?
In 2007, Long Beach published the RiverLink Plan, with the idea to turn the now-vacant land into 1,100 acres of open space for West Long Beach residents, including pedestrian and bike pathways.
This project would address a green space gap, as the westside currently has about 1.5 acres of open space per 1,000 residents as opposed to the eastside, with 5.1 to 16.3 acres of open space per 1,000 residents.
The City and the Trust for Public Land attempted to acquire the site in 2017, according to a City report, but were unable to reach an agreement with private owners after 10 months of “repeated attempted communication” with “no returned communication” from the owners, according to the same report.
Now, new developments like the Pacific Place Project are overriding residents’ hopes for park equity.
“There’s been so much planning, so many promises to the community that have not come through…there is a level of frustration and disappointment, some anger,” Riverpark Coalition Board President Leslie Garretson said.
The City has also pointed to the high cost of transforming the lot into a park as an obstacle, citing an estimate of $27.5 million for land development.
However, Garretson said there are multiple funding sources available, including Prop. 4, a $10 million climate and natural resources state bond, and Measure A, a $3.35 billion parks and open space bond from LA County.
Garretson said Riverpark Coalition is willing to work with the City and county to apply for these grants.
“There’s a lot of funding out there; you just have to be diligent about seeking it,” Garretson said. “It can be done, it just takes a willingness and a commitment to do that.”
What’s Next?
In addition to ongoing litigation, Riverpark Coalition has engaged in community outreach, meetings and petitions, garnering hundreds of signatures from residents seeking to stop the Pacific Place project.
“It’s evident that the community feels that they have not been heard by the city,” Garretson said. “[City council members] are elected to represent their constituents. And that did not happen.”
As Riverpark Coalition and LA Waterkeeper continue to collaborate in pursuing their lawsuit, it is unclear how long the process will take. Garretson said they’re looking at a court date for sometime next year.
“Its a long, painful process,” Garretson said. “We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to prevail.”
Meanwhile, Long Beach Planning Bureau Manager Alison Spindler-Ruiz said the City has other plans to address the need for green space in West Long Beach, including transforming Terminal Island Freeway into green space, once they find a funding source.
This article was updated on Jan. 5, 2026 to correct the name and title of Alison Spindler-Ruiz.
Angela Osorio
Reporter
Angela is a multimedia journalist and a third-year journalism student at Cal State Long Beach. She has won awards for her coverage of campus government and crime, as well as entertainment stories and print design. Angela is passionate about the role of local journalism in servicing underrepresented communities, and hopes to continue her work reporting on local policy, environmental justice, community solutions and more.
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