Photos by Asia Morris.

If you thought the Cherry Beach area renovations couldn’t get any better or more extensive, the City of Long Beach has begun making major repairs and improvements to the Junipero Avenue Beach Parking Lot, just south of Ocean Boulevard and below the park.

“This important project will make it even more convenient for people to come and enjoy our beautiful coastline, which is one of our greatest resources,” said Mayor Robert Garcia in a press release issued today.

The parking lot will be intermittently closed to the public until July 2, 2015. According to the city, the parking lot served as the staging area for the beach pedestrian path project and is in need of major repairs.

“The renovation of this parking lot is greatly needed and will add the finishing touches to our effort to revitalize the Cherry Beach area and improve beach accessibility,” said Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal in a statement.

She said the revamped parking lot, along with the Bixby Park Bluff improvements (which provides for American Disability Act, or ADA, access to the beach) and the new pedestrian path will inspire greater use of the beach and adjacent park.

A new asphalt pavement overlay and concrete ribbon gutter will be installed to renew the parking lot surface and improve site water drainage. Three bioretention areas will be installed along the southern edge of the lot to retain water and act as a natural filtration treatment for runoff. Other improvements will include repairing concrete sidewalks, restriping the parking lot, planting native coastal drought-tolerant vegetation and replacing the irrigation system with one that also uses reclaimed water.

On top of all that, all the aforementioned improvements will pave the parking lot way for future electrical vehicle (EV) charging stations.

“This will add to the City’s sustainable transportation infrastructure, and further demonstrates our commitment to technological innovation,” said Councilwoman Suzie Price in a statement.

According to the release, no trees will be removed or relocated, outdated parking meters will be replaced with new multi-space pay stations and the road and sidewalks on Junipero Avenue, south of Ocean Boulevard, will also be improved as part of this project.