By Nick Diamantides, Staff Writer
Imagine going for a walk northbound on Pacific Avenue starting at Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Imagine that, as you make your way past the clean, neatly decorated shops, you find yourself beneath a canopy of trees, where colorful shrubs and soft-toned, water-absorbing paving stones lead you to comfortable outdoor benches designed for chatting with a friend or contemplative sipping from a cup of espresso or mocha java. Sound far-fetched? Not according to local residents, streetscape architects and city officials who are planning those kinds of changes in the area known as Wrigley Village, which runs along Pacific Avenue from PCH to Willow Street.
Last week, the South Wrigley Neighborhood Advisory Group (NAG) conducted the third in a series of meetings focused on developing a streetscape plan for that area. About 18 residents attended the meeting, in the community police center at 2023 Pacific Avenue. There, the residents heard Melinda Wood describe the progress made on the plan so far. Wood is an architect for Katherine Spitz Associates, a landscape architectural firm based in Marina Del Rey. Last February, the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency (RDA) agreed to pay the firm $172,500 to develop a preliminary Wrigley Village street enhancement program.
“During the first two community meetings on this project, the consulting team worked with the community to define design parameters,” said Gavin McKiernan, NAG chairman. “The community focused on which components will have the most impact on improving Pacific Avenue and expressed a strong interest in the green design scheme being the focus of the plan for the streetscape.”
Wood said that she and her colleagues at Katherine Spitz Associates have been working on the “green street” or sustainable design since August. She explained that the architectural firm will complete the design in phases and has been working on proposed changes to the streetscape between PCH and Hill Street for the last three months. “We talked about making a gateway to the street at PCH, but that would be too complicated (due to businesses with driveways at that intersection),” she said. “Nineteenth Street would be better.”
Tentative plans, according to Wood, include building curb bulb-outs-extending the sidewalks in a bulb shape into a portion of the street-at 19th and Pacific. The gateway would also have a wind sculpture and sign welcoming people to Wrigley Village.
“The big element that we looked at was what is it like to be on the street and what is the pedestrian experience on the sidewalks,” Wood said, explaining that the new design is aimed at making it a much more pleasant experience.
The plan calls for additional bulb-outs along the corridor, planted with trees and covered with permeable pavers-manmade paving stones that absorb rainwater and percolate it into the ground rather than producing runoff. Colorful shrubs would line the sidewalks and clusters of trees would grow close to poured-in-place concrete benches.
“By grouping the trees together, we create shady seating areas along the street,” Wood noted, adding that the trees and shrubs will give the sidewalks a greener, more comfortable ambiance, making them more conducive to walking. “We also like the idea that traffic might slow down and you really feel like you have come into a pedestrian village,” she said.
Katherine Spitz and Associates is also studying the feasibility of including solar-powered pedestrian lights that would aim downward, thereby reducing light pollution.
The firm also decided on small bike racks interspersed throughout the corridor, rather than large bike racks built in one or two locations. Wood said the smaller racks would be less obtrusive, more attractive and more convenient for bicyclists going to specific shops or restaurants. In previous meetings, residents said they would like bike lanes installed on Pacific Avenue, but Wood said the street was not wide enough for that.
Michelle Arrington, a consultant working for the RDA, agreed. “Bike lanes would not work on Pacific Avenue,” she said. “It would actually make the street more dangerous.”
Wood stressed that the preliminary design for the first few blocks of Pacific Avenue still needed to be fine-tuned and it was still much too early to estimate when the plan would be approved by the RDA or when construction might begin.
