Long Beach Plan Gets Sued
- Josh Stephens
- Dec 11, 2017
- 3 min read
Planners in Long Beach have found that, sometimes, no good deed goes unpunished. Adopted in September, the Southeast Area Specific Plan (SEASP) covers a decidedly tricky part of the city. It includes residential neighborhoods, a congested and largely unattractive stretch of Pacific Coast Highway, and one of the last remaining patches of wild wetlands in Los Angeles County. The plan paves the way for redevelopment of PCH, replacing big-box stores with smaller developments and promoting hotels. Importantly, it calls for aesthetic improvements to connect the commercial area to the waterfront and includes protections for the Los Cerritos Wetlands, a 2,400-acre coastal marsh partially encompassed by the specific plan area. “The most important thing that this plan does is memorialize that the wetland areas, whether they’re publically owned or privately owned, are going to remain open land forever,” said Long Beach planner Christopher Koontz. “It concentrates development on existing developed sites.” The centerpiece of the plan is funding for upkeep of the wetlands, paid for by development impact fees. That’s the element about which Long Beach planners are most proud — and which, they hoped, would gain the support of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust (LCWLT). “It’s sort of a watershed for how you can do good planning in a very urbanized area with large housing and economic needs but also be respectful and actually have a positive influence on the adjacent wild lands and be able to do wetlands restoration,” said Koontz. What they got instead was a lawsuit.
