Plans for a self-storage facility and RV park along the Los Angeles River in Long Beach will move forward, despite pushback from several community organizations.
The City Council voted 7-1, with Councilmember Roberto Uranga dissenting, to uphold the Planning Commission’s decision to approve the project at 3701 Pacific Place, a triangular parcel of land that sits north of the 405 Freeway and west of Long Beach’s Los Cerritos neighborhood. Councilmember Suely Saro recused herself from the vote because her employer, the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, has been part of the discussions about the property’s future.
In upholding the Planning Commission’s approval of the development, the City Council rejected appeals from five local organizations — the Sierra Club Los Cerritos Wetlands Task Force, Citizens About Responsible Planning, the Riverpark Coalition, the Historic Equestrian Trail Association of So Cal and the Los Cerritos Neighborhood Association — that sought to stop the project and instead push Long Beach to use the land to develop a park.
City officials, though, have emphasized that the land is private property and has never been zoned to allow for park space.
Still, representatives for each of those community groups spoke during the Tuesday meeting as part of the appeals process, each stating their case for why the City Council should reject the project. Some of the topics touched on by each group included the overall lack of park space in Long Beach’s western half, the potential environmental and health impacts of the proposed facility and the site’s history as as a site for oil wells and an oil brine water treatment facility, which led to soil contamination and groundwater degradation in the area.
Many of those who spoke pointed to the fact that a full environmental impact report was not completed for the project. Instead, an initial study of potential environmental effects found that certain mitigation measures, like implementing a plan — which must be prepared by a qualified environmental professional — for site remediation, engineering controls, future operation and monitoring activities, and administrative controls to allow for the development of the site, would sufficiently address any negative impacts. But the appellants who spoke Tuesday said that study was not sufficient given the site’s history.
“This site is fraught with environmental issues, and the public deserves to have a comprehensive study done,” Corliss Lee, who spoke on behalf of Citizens About Responsible Planning, said. “We ask that you allow the facts to speak for themselves, and the facts will be determined by an environmental impact report.”
City staff and the folks behind the project, though, said plans for remediation that are already included in the proposal will ensure that there aren’t any significant environmental impacts.
Fernando Villa, an attorney for the developer, InSite Property Group, said the company is committed to improving the area for residents.
“Today, environmental justice pervades this community because you have had, for decades, an environmentally impacted site that has put residents at risk,” Villa said. “We will eliminate that contamination via remediation. We will make this place a safe community asset. So we believe environmental justice will be absolutely promoted, not undermined.”
Some of the ways InSite Property Group has incorporated community feedback into its plans, the company’s partner Paul Brown said, include adding a new public access path to the LA River Trail, a new river pavilion and a nature preserve.
Brown also committed to continuing to work with city staff and the community to allow river access, which would include a trail to connect to a neighboring 11-acre site that Long Beach and LA County have targeted for more park space.
Uranga, though, was persuaded by the appellants’ push for a full environmental impact report before moving forward.
“I think that the community is asking for one thing only: Do a full EIR, and I am in full support of that,” he said. “Your’e going to get a lot of the information that they want, because we want to be comfortable that whatever goes in that property is going there because it was a fully extensive EIR performed and that all the concerns regarding contamination, regarding the environmental justice issues that were brought up, were in fact addressed and looked at.”
While Uranga’s colleagues said they appreciated the information and passion the organizations brought to the conversation, none of them appeared similarly swayed.
Councilmember Al Austin, whose Eighth District includes the site and who led the council’s recent push for Long Beach to find more park space along the LA River, said he hoped open space advocates will continue to be engaged on the issue, even as the Pacific Place development moves forward.
“I would like to channel all this wonderful energy we’ve heard here tonight,” he said, “toward actually working together and building park space.”
