acresofbooks
The Acres of Books building has been vacant since the store closed in 2008. File photo.

acresofbooks

The Acres of Books building is one of the many sites in Long Beach left in limbo after the dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency. Photo by Dennis Dean.

A Long Beach property management plan focused on the fate of hundreds of properties formerly belonging to the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency enters its first phase of approval Oct. 1.

In addition to dissolving all of the redevelopment agencies in the state of California in 2012, AB1484 also required the RDA’s successor agencies to submit a long term property management plan within six months of a Finding of Completion, a deadline that for Long Beach’s City Council ends October 23.

“This plan is for us to justify which properties we get back from the state,” said Diana Tang, government affairs analyst for the City of Long Beach. “Those aren’t guaranteed to us; we are fighting to get those back.”

Under the released plan, Long Beach’s 259 former RDA parcels are labeled into one of four categories: government use, enforceable obligation, future development and for-sale property.

Government-use parcels would be turned into public assets such as libraries and parks. Properties with enforceable obligations are projects under redevelopment contracts prior to disillusion to RDA. For-sale property are areas that will be put in the market with no specific use in mind.

“The goal is to get as much property into future development,” said Business and Property Development Director Michael Conway. The city would have complete control over ongoing development and management of future development sites.

According to Conway, the strategic plan aims allocate 161 of the parcels into future development projects with the intention of improving the quality of life in underserved areas.

Members of Uptown Partners and Long Beach Central Project Area Council, however, remain concerned about how redevelopment funds will be spent.

“This city is very Downtown-centric. They love redevelopment so much, they’re going to do it as much as they possibly can,” said Laurie Angel of Uptown Partners. “It’s always the priority.”

Angel and Annie Greenfield, president of the Central Area Project Council, agree that profits earned from future development projects should be invested in their respective area. North and central Long Beach, they say, continue to fall low in priority amongst the re-elections of city officials.

“What the city needs to do really is have their own capital improvement budget and leave our redevelopment dollars alone,” said Greenfield.

Should the State’s Department of Finance approve the city’s property maagement plan, Conway expects properties to sell slowly over a span of two years.

“We’re going to get together with former RDA staff and we’re going to put some sort of strategic plan for disposition,” said Conway. “We don’t want to roll everything out at once. we don’t want to inundate the marketplace or cannibalize our opportunities.”

In accordance with SB470, Conway intends to encourage community outreach and input through means such as a online input and newsletters.

Angel expressed disappointment that groups such as her own where not contacted in the development of the plan. Rather, the Successor Agency referred to old strategic guides from former RDA employees.

The city’s long range property management plan, which can be read at longbeach.legistar.com, will be submitted first to the Successor Agency Oct. 1, to the Oversight Board Oct. 7 and to the Department of Finance Oct. 23.


A map of former Long Beach RDA properties, with descriptions of the plan for each property taken from Long Beach’s RDA Long Range Property Management Plan (below). Not listed are two properties marked as Enforceable Obligation Properties; Wrigley Marketplace, item IDs 22 – 27 and Cal Can Holdings Development items IDs 234 – 238 (see descriptions below). Data visualization by Dennis Dean.

Long Beach’s RDA Long Range Property Management Plan