12:00pm | The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust has commissioned a study of alternative projects at the corner of 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway and how they would impact traffic. The study of alternatives was produced by the traffic engineering firm of Darnell & Associates.    

“We commissioned this study for two reasons” said Elizabeth Lambe, Executive Director of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust.  “The first reason was to help the community understand that there are alternatives that could be built at that corner that would allow for reasonable development without necessarily tripping as many significant traffic impacts as the current proposal does.  For example, we learned that the immense amount of retail contained within the proposed development would drive most of the significant increases in traffic.   However, if you reduce the proposed retail by 50%, and eliminate the proposed residential component, several significant traffic impacts can be avoided; for example, at the 2nd St./Bay Shore Avenue intersection during the PM peak hour.  For further examples, at the 2nd St./PCH intersection, the AM peak hour significant impact would be avoided; and at the 2nd St./Studebaker Road intersection, the AM peak hour significant impact would be avoided.  And that’s not all.  We found that if you convert even more of the retail to hotel, the traffic relief gets even better.”

“A requirement of California Environmental law is that feasible alternatives must be considered if they are environmentally superior,” stated Pat Bliss, President of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust.  “That didn’t happen in this case.  Instead the developer ran a bunch of scenarios based on a seemingly random set of criteria.  That shouldn’t be acceptable to the City, and we know it won’t be acceptable to the courts, should that route become necessary”.

“The precedent setting nature of the proposed development should concern all those who care about the integrity of local zoning and how it works to protect those of us who live in the neighborhoods near Los Cerritos Wetlands,” added Keith Simmons, nearby University Park Estates resident and wetlands activist.  “If we allow one giant, traffic-producing development to be constructed, more will come, and we, the local residents, will be left to navigate increasingly worse traffic, traffic that will have an adverse effect on our quality of life and on our local wetlands”.

To view the traffic alternatives study produced by Darnell and Associates and the letter summarizing their findings that was sent to the City of Long Beach’s Planning Department by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, go to www.lcwlandtrust.org.