Setting the record straight.

The commercial developer of 3701 Pacific Place is making misleading claims about our fight for green space. Here are the facts:

CLAIM: "The City can't afford to buy this land or build a park here."

FACT: The funding already exists.

MULTIPLE FUNDING SOURCES ARE AVAILABLE:

MEASURE A: LA County's $3.35 billion parks and open space bond
PROP 68: California's $4.1 billion parks and water bond
PROP 4: California's $10 billion climate and natural resources bond
PRIVATE NONPROFITS: Have offered to partner with the City to purchase the land.

The real issue isn't money—it's park equity.

The City committed to acquiring land to bring its North, West, and South sectors to an acceptable level of parkland—8 acres per 1,000 people. Acquiring this key parcel is the single most important step toward that goal. Even if achieving a park here takes years, the land must remain open space to get there. If it’s built on, the City will never be able to address its park equity problems.

CLAIM: Stopping this development would constitute an illegal “regulatory taking.”

FACT: A judge already rejected this argument in 2021.

THE LEGAL PRECEDENT IS CLEAR: The fact that the property is privately owned at present "in no way insulates the City from rejecting the project" when it conflicts with established land use planning documents requiring open space according to the Court’s ruling.

THE "REGULATORY TAKING" ALREADY HAPPENED: For decades, this land was designated as “open space.” In 2019, developers worked behind closed doors to “take” this land by getting it re-zoned to "neo/light industrial." Now they want another rezoning to "commercial storage."

Re-zoning should benefit the community.

Why should only developers benefit from re-zoning? The City Council has full legal authority to reject this project. The law doesn't only protect developer profits—it protects community welfare.

CLAIM: "This land is too polluted to be a park."

FACT: Nature heals contaminated land—concrete makes it worse.

GREEN REMEDIATION IS SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN: Carefully designed ecosystems with specific plant species can break down underground contaminants through natural processes. This approach is more cost-effective and successful than traditional methods.

EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL GREEN REMEDIATION:

Davenport Park in North Long Beach
(former contaminated industrial site)
Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle
(former oil terminal)
Brookfield Park in Staten Island
(former toxic dump site)

Paving over pollution is the worst option.

The developers are not proposing to remediate 3701 Pacific Place. They are planning to merely cap the contaminated soil, which will simply trap contaminants, allowing them to leach into groundwater and volatilize into the air. This perpetuates environmental harm to adjacent communities instead of solving it.

CLAIM: "A storage facility will bring jobs and economic benefits to Long Beach."

FACT: Parks create more jobs and lasting economic value.

CONSTRUCTION JOBS WILL EXIST EITHER WAY: Building a park requires just as much labor as building a storage facility—with the same economic impact during construction.

LONG-TERM ECONOMIC COMARISON:

Storage facility: 3-5 permanent, low-wage jobs
Public park: 8-10 permanent jobs (maintenance, programming, security) plus indirect tourism and recreation economy jobs

PROPERTY VALUE IMPACT:

Green space: Increases surrounding property values by 8-20% according to a study by the Trust for Public Land
Storage facilities: Decrease surrounding residential property values

Parks are regional attractions that invite tourism.

A signature riverfront park on this land could position Long Beach as a recreational destination along the LA River trail, bringing sustained economic benefits. Storage facilities would bring no recreational or tourism value.

CLAIM: "Building on this land will keep the community safe from homelessness and crime."

FACT: Green space reduces crime—only more housing can solve the housing crisis

THE HOUSING CRISIS REQUIRES HOUSING SOLUTIONS, NOT PAVED LOTS:

The crisis stems from insufficient affordable housing, not too much green space
Paving over one of the few remaining open spaces in western Long Beach does nothing to address housing needs
Quality public space supports community members' mental health and social connections

THE SCIENCE IS CLEAR ON CRIME REDUCTION:

Areas with more vegetation show 48% lower crime rates (Environment and Behavior, 2001)
Neighborhoods with green space experience 12% less violent crime (USDA Forest Service)

The safety argument is a red herring:

Storage facilities and RV parking lots don't reduce crime or solve the housing crisis—they simply displace the problem and permanently eliminate the chance for more community green space.

CLAIM: "Western Long Beach is west of the LA River. The area east of the LA River doesn't face the same problems."

FACT: City officials are mixing neighborhood names with geographic sectors to downplay the scope of park inequity.

THE GEOGRAPHY DOESN'T MATCH THE RHETORIC:
City staff are trying to minimize the problems by limiting them to just the Westside neighborhoods. But the data on park inequity uses a much broader definition of "West Long Beach" and includes many neighborhoods east of the LA River, such as:

Westside, Arlington, and Lincoln Village neighborhoods (west of the river)
Wrigley, Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos (east of the river)
Parts of North Long Beach and other communities (east of the river)

Using misleading geographic terms allows the city to minimize both the scope of the problem and the number of people who would benefit from the long planned for Wrigley Heights Park on 3701 Pacific Place.

The numbers don’t lie.

The stark disparity between little more than 1 acre of parkland per 1,000 residents in West Long Beach and North Long Beach versus 16.7 acres per 1,000 residents in East Long Beach reflects this broader geographic reality—not just the neighborhoods immediately west of the river.

Whether you call it "western Long Beach," "West Long Beach," or the "western sector of the city," the park inequity affects a large swath of residents on both sides of the LA River. The 3701 Pacific Place site would serve all of these communities, making the City's geographic hair-splitting irrelevant to the fundamental question of environmental justice.

CLAIM: "Long Beach isn't obligated to consider the needs of the century-old equestrian community living and riding along the LA River."

FACT: The City must honor decades of planning commitments to preserve equestrian access and connectivity.

The 1977 EIR and 2020 Lower LA Revitalization Plan identified 3701 Pacific Place as the west-east connection across the river. This wasn't an accident—it was deliberate recognition of the prior 1947 trail map that recognized the historic crossing and the need for planning to restore and maintain equestrian mobility and community cohesion for future public access.

Recent planning reaffirms the need: In 2020, the Lower LA River Revitalization Plan (LLARRP) task force again identified this site as "the cornerstone to restore that east-west connection" and regain a riding loop. This allows equestrians and the public to move safely between the zones without being land-locked on the west side or forcing Del Amo riders to fight head-on traffic.

Environmental and social justice intersect here:

Trails need habitat buffers: Equestrian trails require natural buffer zones for both rider safety and environmental function
Historic community preservation: The equestrian community represents over a century of cultural heritage that's rapidly disappearing due to development pressure
Multi-benefit connectivity: The east-west greenspace linkage serves equestrians, cyclists, pedestrians, and wildlife

THE DOMINO EFFECT: Acknowledging equestrian rights strengthens every other argument for preserving this site—park equity, environmental remediation, air and water quality, historic planning alignment, and social justice for a marginalized community that has stewarded these lands for generations.

BOTTOM LINE: The City can't simply ignore a century of equestrian presence and decades of planning documents that recognize this community's needs. Paving over the designated east-west connection would break legal commitments and sever the last link in a historic trail system, effectively eliminating an entire cultural community from Long Beach.