Final permissions will ensure completion of Uptown Commons

The Long Beach City Council is set to approve a final subdivision map for the Uptown Commons retail center currently under construction at 6600 Atlantic Ave.

The retail project occupies a formerly vacant two-acre lot at the northeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Artesia Boulevard, one block south of the 91 (Artesia) Freeway. The site’s six single-story buildings includes five restaurants, a drive-through coffee kiosk and a full-service bank.

[See similar story: Proposal for The Uptown retail plaza to reach City planning commission in June]

One of those restaurants is freestanding with an outdoor patio and two will be housed in former shipping containers, according to the staff report. The building plans feature contemporary designs using brick, cement, aluminum, metal canopies and vertical trellises.

“A large outdoor plaza area which incorporates a specimen tree and metal trellis serves as the cornerstone of the commercial center,” the report states.

Tenants already lined up by the developers include Starbucks coffee, Wendy’s fast food, a Main Chick spicy fried chicken restaurant, a ramen bar called Shomi Noods, a Filipino-inspired eatery called Oi Asian Fusion and the Portside Fish Company, according to media reports.

The project has not been without objectors, with some members of the public concerned about potential traffic congestion created by the site.

Kirk Davis, resident and member of the nonprofit Coalition for a Healthy North Long Beach (CHNLB), had written to the Long Beach Planning Commission last year prior to its approval of the project, suggesting that the plan did not fit community needs.

“The community requested and were expecting a sit-down restaurant, bank and a community space, along with non-corporate businesses with fresh, new ideas,” Davis stated.
He also expressed concern that the site will add to the area’s traffic congestion, especially with its two drive-throughs, which the City had approved before the council’s May 7 moratorium on them.

“The wonderful renderings seem to promote walkability […] but the plan seems to promote LA car culture,” Davis noted. “Additional parking and the impact of […] drive-through lanes of idling cars makes outside seating, walking in the area and living in the area less appealing and less healthy.”

Hilda Gaytan, another member of CHNLB and a Sustainable Cities Commissioner, had also written to the planning commission objecting to the site as unsustainable and a threat to public health.

“The project increases greenhouse-gas emissions due to the induced increase in car trips,” Gaytan wrote. “This prevents the area from ever evolving into a more walkable, compact, village-like setting.”

The project broke ground in June and is slated to be completed in early 2020.

The City considers Uptown Commons part of its Uptown Planning Land Use and Neighborhoods Strategy (UPLAN), intended to revitalized Long Beach’s 9th District.

Besides Uptown Commons, the planning commission approved a similarly-named project called The Uptown last year– a restaurant and retail site at the former Harding Plaza shopping center at 6141-6191 Atlantic Ave. “Anti-mall” developer LAB Holdings, LLC is planning another retail concept in the area called Canvas.

“The goal of the UPLAN is to create a new vision, smart economic strategies [and] determine transportation improvements,” the Planning Commission stated in its 2018 Year in Review, “[It will] provide an intelligent zoning guide to ensure future development provides the best possible outcome for the surrounding area.”

The Long Beach City Council will convene at 5pm on Tuesday, Dec. 17 in the Civic Chambers at 411 W. Ocean Blvd.