The Riverpark Coalition is asking residents to speak out against a planned development project on one of the last open parcels of land along the Los Angeles River at the Long Beach Planning Commission meeting on June 5.
The Riverpark Coalition is a grassroots nonprofit organization formed by residents living in the area surrounding 3701 Pacific Place who want to see the space transformed into a public park. Los Angeles County and Long Beach have planned on using the 14 acres of space along the LA River for walking trails, public parks and green space for decades.
Multiple studies have been published on the possible transformation of the land along the river, including the RiverLink Plan, West Long Beach Livability Implementation Plan, LA River Master Plan and Lower LA River Revitalization Plan. Building park space along the river is part of Long Beach’s attempt to improve air quality in West Long Beach and decrease the disparity of green space across the city.
Despite these plans, the City approved the development of a storage facility, recreational vehicle parking lot, car wash and wastewater dump station on the land.
According to the California Air Resources Board, West Long Beach suffers from high levels of air pollution caused by freight, freeway traffic, port and rail operations, oil and gas production and refineries. The American Lung Association consistently ranks the Los Angeles-Long Beach area as one of the worst in the nation in terms of air pollutants.
On the more affluent eastside of Long Beach, residents have an average of 17 acres of green space per 1,000 residents, while on the westside of the city there’s only two acres per 1,000 residents, according to Long Beach’s Parks, Recreation and Marine Strategic Plan from 2003
The proposed project, which began in 2021, involves the construction of a multi-level self-storage facility totaling approximately 206,756 square feet and housing around 1,681 individual storage units. Positioned in the southeastern section of the site will be 551 rentable RV parking spaces as well as 27 standard and 5 ADA-compliant parking stalls. Additional features of the project include a private 1,450-square-foot car wash, landscaping, infrastructure upgrades and a walking trail.
To further its efforts to stop the project, the Riverpark Coalition has revamped its website, hired a business to handle its public relations and marketing and started a petition urging the city council to reject the environmental impact report (EIR). As of April 19, the petition had garnered 450 signatures.
Currently, the Los Angeles-Long Beach area has the highest number of high-ozone days of any metropolitan area in the country. It was also the fifth worst metropolitan area for annual air particle pollution, and the seventh worst for 24-hour particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association.
Critics of the Pacific Place Project, including the Riverpark Coalition, have argued that the area’s increased pollution burden, limited park access and historic health disparities makes additional green space a vital need. Supporters, including the site developers, argue that the land has sat vacant for years and is unsafe for park use
This is because the site used to contain oil rigs, which left behind high levels of arsenic and other toxins on the land, according to the Department of Toxic Substances Control. Developers originally planned in 2021 to use water trucks to soak the dirt to prevent toxic dust from floating into neighboring homes and schools during construction. Additional measures included air quality sensors on the site that would trigger a halt in construction if hazardous levels of toxins were detected, a vapor barrier to stop toxic gases from leaking out of the ground and a stormwater management system.
The Long Beach City Council originally voted 7-1 to approve the Pacific Place Project on April 14, 2021, without doing a full EIR. The Riverpark Coalition and the LA Waterkeepers then sued the City of Long Beach in 2022, resulting in a judge halting the approval of the proposed project and ordering the City to complete an EIR before any work on the site could move forward.
A draft of the EIR was available for public review from the end of July to the end of September 2024, and over 60 people submitted comments on it. The current EIR was released earlier this month and contains responses to those comments.
If the EIR is approved by the Planning Commission, it will then go before the Long Beach City Council for a final decision.
The Riverpark Coalition plans to speak against the approval of the EIR at the upcoming Planning Commission meeting on June 5 at 5 p.m. The organization invites any interested residents to give public comments as well, and they will be holding a gathering before the meeting where the first 100 attendees will receive a free T-shirt. Riverpark Coalition representatives will show up at 4 p.m.
What You Can Do:
- Sign the Petition: The Riverpark Coalition has a petition on its website addressed to the mayor and city council, opposing the development on 3701 Pacific Place. The coalition also has a sample letter to send directly to your respective city council representative.
- Write to the Planning Commission: Written testimony can be sent directly to the Planning Commission by emailing PlanningCommissioners@longbeach.gov, amy.harbin@longbeach.gov, and LBDS-EIR-Comments@longbeach.gov.
- Attend the Planning Commission Meeting: On June 5, the City of Long Beach’s Planning Commission will meet to vote to approve or deny the EIR for the development at 3701 Pacific Place. Residents can attend the meeting either in-person or online and speak out during public comment. Meetings occur at the Long Beach Civic Center, located at 411 W Ocean Blvd. and begin at 5 p.m.
Those attending in-person can fill out a speaker card at the start of the meeting. Those attending online can comment via Zoom by using the “raise hand” function, or via telephone by dialing “*9” on your phone.
