Built in 1922, downtown Long Beach’s Sovereign Apartments building is designated by the city as a historical landmark.9:30am | Over four years ago, the journey began to update the Downtown Community Plan, the zoning plan for downtown Long Beach. I should know; the office at which I work wrote the preamble of the DCP, 12 guiding principles for the downtown’s future. Because of my involvement in various community forums (including this column), I was not directly involved in this visioning process. However, since that point I have been a spectator as the DCP and its accompanying draft environmental impact report were released a couple months ago. As an educated observer, I feel I can recognize the opportunities and limitations of the DCP as currently formulated.
The crafting of the plan began with a steering committee composed of downtown boosters and downtown skeptics (indeed, some persons wore both hats), both business owners and residents. All these constituencies came together to formulate a vision for the future of downtown Long Beach. What resulted from this initial phase was a document with guiding principles for a waterfront metropolis composed of vibrant spaces, authentic architecture, high quality public art and interlinked neighborhoods. It was an inspiring document, one that set the tone for the four years that followed, as the DCP was further developed by a consultant team that held public meetings and collaborated with a steering committee (some members of whom helped in the drafting of the original document). This newer incarnation of the DCP moves beyond vision to address the nuts and bolts of how the vision might be implemented.
The Downtown Community Plan is a zoning document, and thus just one aspect of a vision for downtown Long Beach. It updates the Downtown Planned Development document (PD-30), which outside of minor revisions has not been altered for over a decade. Zoning documents instruct property owners as to how they can improve their properties and create a cohesive built environment. However, efforts to sexy up the Downtown “Community” Plan (no longer “Planned Development”) Plan with sections on character and connectivity have distracted from the document’s purpose. Indeed, these sections could be seen to create false expectations in terms of what such a document can accomplish.
Based on community input, the Downtown Community Plan has been crafted to be more comprehensive than the PD-30. For instance, it provides guidance on a range of design issues, including the relationship between adjacent buildings, the layout of open-space and street-level activity. By mandating that new development relate to existing contexts without being derivative, these additions to the plan will reinforce the architecturally-rich texture of key intersections like Broadway and Linden Avenue and Third Street and Cedar Avenue. In conjunction with existing city policies like the general plan’s housing element and the green building ordinance, the DCP also incentivizes developers to provide community benefits, including inclusionary housing and public open space.
One aspect of developing the Downtown Community Plan was a draft environmental impact report, which predicts the collective impact of development over the next three decades. This welcome addition reduces procedural hurdles for development while looking at growth in a more comprehensive and proactive fashion. We should consider a similar prospective impact report for the various port infrastructure projects that surround the west side of Long Beach. As it stands, the existing half-dozen individual EIRs do far less to analyze the collective impact of these port projects.
The city should prioritize mitigating these impacts as part of a capital improvement strategic plan that specifies where to focus new public investment, from parks to streetcar routes. In this way, future developer impact fees, general municipal funds and grants can be used in a manner that responds to the community’s own vision for downtown Long Beach.
Unfortunately, despite being entitled the “Downtown Community Plan,” the DCP does not include the entire downtown; the boundaries of its mandate stop short of the actual waterfront at Ocean Boulevard due to state coastal regulations. Using supplemental documents to extend the DCP’s boundaries south toward the shore, and north along Long Beach Boulevard, would better integrate surrounding neighborhoods into a cohesive urban fabric.
The Downtown Community Plan is important: Its initial guiding principles set a standard for how private developers should focus their efforts. For instance, the reduced parking requirements of the DCP reflect the fact that there is an overabundance of parking downtown, as well as a rich array of alternative modes of transportation. Its historic preservation section provides greater flexibility for reusing existing structures. It also identifies over four dozen structures eligible for landmark designation (based on age and architectural significance).
Public debate about the Downtown Community Plan has raised important issues of social justice and gentrification. Establishing legislation to counter the working class’ “race to the bottom” is imperative and should be discussed in the same breath as the government’s role in economic recovery. But such legislation is not the mandate of the appointed planning commissioners discussing the DCP; it is not within their purview, nor is it relevant to just one district, in one city, in one state. Instead, there should be collective soul searching (and urgent, creative political work) in the public and private sectors as to how we can rebuild our middle class.
The discussion about establishing stronger mechanisms for providing affordable housing to compensate for the loss of existing stock either by removal (as in the “West Gateway” project) or from increasing property values (as in the “East Village” neighborhood) should occur at a citywide level. To focus social obligations on one part of the city is poor policy and unfair to the communities in question. To locate all new affordable housing downtown would be as problematic as the current situation of having the majority of social service providers located in West Long Beach. The citywide housing element is updated in five-year cycles, allowing for a regular review of city policies in regard to affordable housing. Perhaps inclusionary housing regulations can be studied for all new development, not just development downtown. This makes particular sense given the state’s proposed elimination of redevelopment agencies, something that would remove the most effective instrument for supporting affordable housing in many cities across California, including Long Beach.
There are many issues facing Long Beach that directly effect the downtown area and touch on questions of planning; however, the Downtown Community Plan cannot and should not address all of them. To do so would dilute the product and the process to the point of being ineffective. Instead, additional documents are necessary to encompass other facets of planning, from the bike master plan to the streetscape plan (both of which are currently being updated). Zoning plans are living documents that change over time, but occasionally there needs to be the sort of paradigm shift exemplified by replacing the PD-30 with the Downtown Community Plan.
The Planning Commission meets tonight for an open discussion about the DCP at 5 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 333. W. Ocean Blvd. The public is welcome to attend to learn more, ask questions and voice concerns.