Downtown Long Beach will soon see a new seven-story, mixed-use building with 108 market-rate apartments at the vacant former site of a one-story Firestone Complete Auto Care.
The Long Beach City Council approved the project Tuesday, Jan. 18 after hearing an appeal that asserted the building did not fall within the scope of the Downtown Plan.
The Downtown Plan (PD-30) was approved in 2012 and included an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that cleared the way for development anticipated through 2035.
The plan included anticipated development—5,000 square feet of residential units, 480,000 square feet of commercial space, 1.5 million square feet of office space and 800 square feet of hotel rooms.
The City proposed an addendum Tuesday that includes an equivalency program to “provide department flexibility so that Downtown can continue to respond to market conditions,” Planning Bureau Manager Patricia Diefenderfer said.
An increase in residential units could be offset by a decrease in office space, and so forth.
Each exchange rate is based on traffic and noise, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions caused by different types of developments.
The addendum allows the plan to remain under the scope of the EIR, Diefenderfer said.
And that flexibility is already being put to use. So far, development in the Downtown Plan area has seen 105% of the anticipated residential units, but less than 50% of anticipated commercial, office and hotel space.
But appellant Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility (SAFER) asserted that the original EIR never contemplated such an increase in residential density. They said that the City should have conducted a separate EIR or Negative Declaration of environmental impacts to address increasing residential development.
“SAFER is not opposed to the project per se,” attorney Brian Flynn said on behalf of SAFER. “But believes that the [California Environmental Quality Act] requires an Environmental Impact Report rather than an addendum.”
The Long Beach City Council unanimously denied the appeal.
“It’s an old, vacant tire shop, and we’d love to make something which we think is contributive to the Downtown Long Beach community,” project developer Sandy Schmid said.
The project, located at 636 Locust Ave., will include nearly 1,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial uses and associated parking. It includes a mix of one- to three-bedroom units and includes a community room, fitness center, lounge area, pool, outdoor seating areas, rooftop deck and private balconies.
The building is a mix of one-bedroom units (88), two-bedroom units (17) and three-bedroom units (3), none of which will be affordable.
Though the City has an inclusionary housing policy that requires 11% of new Downtown housing units be affordable, the project was submitted before the policy was adopted and thus is not subject to affordability requirements.