A West Long Beach mini-park was potentially saved Tuesday night after the City Council voted to approve funding to purchase the privately-owned space and cement the park into the public realm.
Tanaka Park, which is just east of Santa Fe Avenue at Wardlow Road, was created through a partnership between the city and the Tanaka family in 2001. The 1.4-acre park is a small but needed green space in the park-starved western portion of the city.
By approving the $1.1 million needed to purchase the parcel from the Tanaka family, the council made sure the park will be a permanent piece of the city.
Privately owned park in West Long Beach up for sale for $1 million; city hopes to save it
Long Beach Economic Development Director John Keisler said the park, while small, serves the neighborhood with a basketball court and walking path. He said the purchase price could have been higher if the Tanaka family sought to list the parcel for other uses. The land is currently zoned for single-family homes.
“We’re really grateful to the Tanaka family because they could negotiate with anyone,” Keisler said. “It’s possible that if the property were put on the market for other uses that it could actually command a higher purchase price.”
The parcel of land was formally part of a farm run by the Tanaka family, which sought the city’s help maintaining the land after numerous code violations from illegal dumping plagued the site. The family entered into a lease agreement with the city in 2001 to make the parcel into a privately-owned public park.
Councilman Roberto Uranga, who represents the portion of the city where Tanaka Park is located, said there was a sort of closure with the park becoming permanent after Tuesday’s vote. The initial concept of the park was created during his wife’s time as the 7th District representative, and now it will become a permanent fixture of the community under his watch.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we have to get open space to become permanent open space in the city of Long Beach,” Uranga said. “I want to thank the Tanaka family for offering the property to the city and for their ability to cooperate with us on finding a good price and being amenable to us with this purchase.”
Funding for the purchase will come from a multitude of sources including $50,000 from the 7th District council office, $764,000 from Los Angeles County Measure A revenue, $234,000 from a demolition and construction fund, and an additional $55,000 from Breakers Development LLC.
Breakers Development contributed the money to replace a portion of Victory Park, which is being removed as part of the company’s renovation of the Breakers Hotel in Downtown. The company was required to replace the lost park space at a rate of two to one somewhere else in the city.
Breakers Development is part of Pacific6, the company that owns the Long Beach Post.
The city and the Tanaka family could complete the sale as early as September according to Keisler