Long Beach is revisiting a plan that has been tabled for eight years to expand park space in the west side by transforming parts of land along the Terminal Island Freeway.
The plan was created in 2015 by the city, CalTrans and the Port of Long Beach to address the environmental impacts on westside neighborhoods and improve quality of life for residents. The westside is surrounded by parts of the 710 freeway, 405 freeway and Pacific Coast Highway, which contributes to some of the worst air quality in the city.
“We know that Long Beach is park-starved,” said Councilmember Robert Uranga, who reintroduced the plan to the council Tuesday night. “We need more open space so let’s make this project something we can be proud of and something that’s going to matter for the city of Long Beach.”
The city doesn’t control the entire length of Terminal Island, but owns almost 10 acres of the land.
Facilities surrounding Terminal Island include Cabrillo High School, Hudson Elementary School, the Century Villages at Cabrillo and multiple housing developments. According to studies done by the city in 2015, 47% of the community around Terminal Island is Latino.
“This project will address multiple issues that the west side definitely has right now such as poor air quality, lack of green space and lack of retail,” said Long Beach resident Connie Loggins. “My desire is to have that zone address these particular issues. There’s no reason that residents should have to leave their community for … bike paths, walk paths, even retail opportunities.”
Through public outreach conducted in 2015, the plan outlines ways to transform the first and last mile of the Terminal Island into urban forests, walking and bike paths, storm drainage, wetlands, a skating area, a community garden, a plaza, “pollution-eating plants” and more.
Terminal Island Freeway was built in 1947, then called the Industrial Freeway, by the U.S. Navy to improve access to Long Beach ports and Naval shipyards. Now the freeway connects Terminal Island to the Long Beach Port.
The road would still be in use, but the pedestrian space would be expanded and large spaces of land that are now road or concrete will be reused for green space.
“When we decided as a city to create a port we still had horses and carriages. We didn’t know that we would have the second largest port in America, but we made that choice,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “When it comes to thinking about how we create some sense of environmental justice in those areas, we have to think big ideas here and if we can get this right … This is something that we can rally some of our state and federal partners around.”
There are also plans to use the strip of land to connect Hudson and Admiral Kidd Parks and to create a buffer of trees separating residencies from commercial usage.
According to city documents, it would take five to seven years to complete the Terminal Island Transition Plan.
City staff will return to the council within four months on the feasibility of implementing the plan, “ranging from partial to full implementation,” according to staff reports. City staff will also report back on funding sources and ways the project might help Long Beach’s goal of hosting events in the 2028 Olympics.
