Residents who live adjacent to the 710 Freeway and Los Angeles River in Long Beach have long awaited a lush, green, open space in their part of town, one that the city has promised for over a decade and has yet to deliver.
Instead, neighbors these days look out on the slow progress being made on what’s mostly an empty lot, often sweeping up construction dust that accumulates in their homes when it’s windy.
The Wrigley Greenbelt, a $2.6 million project on a one-mile stretch of land east of the LA River and 710 Freeway, is a vision that includes a long walking trail lined with native landscaping and an abundance of trees that will ultimately improve air quality along the pollution-clogged trucking corridor. Benches, picnic tables and water fountains will be spread throughout; dry stream beds will be installed to improve stormwater runoff control and drainage into the surrounding soil.
But after numerous setbacks and blown deadlines, it’s not expected to open until next year, and residents are only cautiously optimistic that Long Beach will meet its latest target date.
“I personally feel like it’s because it’s Wrigley … we tend to get overlooked and ignored,” said Dave Clark, who has been a resident in the neighborhood for 36 years.
Since the start of 2021, the project has been delayed twice. An oversight from the Department of Public Works halted any progress in May 2021 after a flood-control permit from LA County “unintentionally expired,” according to Public Works Director Eric Lopez. One month before that, tree removals were put on pause when residents voiced concerns about the trees possibly being used as nesting spots for birds.
After those issues were resolved, officials informed residents at a community meeting in October that construction would resume on Nov. 1. They estimated the project would be finished and open to the public by May 31, 2022.
Since the update in October, a planned equestrian center in the middle of the project site (around Spring Street to 31st Street) that was managed by LA County has been completed and opened to the public, but the greenbelt managed by the city remains inaccessible.
As of June 7, an orange fence and overgrown weeds lined the stretch of land and contractors had begun outlining where the trail would eventually lay. A single worker was seen watering the loose dirt to provide dust control for homes and vehicles across the street on Deforest Avenue.
Now, the city projects that the greenbelt will be complete by Dec. 31 and open to the public in early 2023, but residents who live along the greenbelt are not confident the city will meet that deadline.
A long history of delays
The Wrigley Greenbelt Master Plan dates back to 1993 and initial outreach for the project began in 2007. One of the earliest estimated completion dates for the project was December 2009. Another document estimated the date of completion to be December 2015.
However, $1.6 million in grants from LA County allocated back in 2008 were not enough to cover every aspect of the envisioned greenbelt. Follow-up outreach efforts took place in the years that followed and eventually in 2019, the Conservation Corps of Long Beach agreed to provide another $300,000 to complete a scaled-down version of the original plan.
Since then, expiring permits and grants have posed a threat to the project.
Site prep began in January 2021 with fencing, field walks and sign installations. Initial plans for the greenbelt included the removal of dead and rotting trees but residents at the time criticized that it might cause a disturbance to any bird nests among the branches.
In a report, biologists found “two nests under construction” and “a completed nest that was potentially active,” but no “bird activity” at or near the completed nest.
After that, Public Works and the Conservation Corps continued to work but were unaware of a flood-control permit required by LA County that had expired back in 2018.
With the authorization lapsed, Public Works could not conduct any grading or excavation on the land until a new permit was approved.
“You know, in retrospect, we missed a couple of things, and I will own up to it and it created lessons learned for us,” Lopez told the Signal Tribune in July of last year.
As of September, the city has been issued all three permits needed to continue construction, including the previously expired flood-control permit, a grading permit, and a building and safety permit.
When construction restarted in November, officials were hopeful that the project, which stretches along DeForest Avenue from 26th Way to 34th Street, would be complete before the $1.625 million LA County grant expired on May 31.
However, according to Marilyn Surakas, bureau manager for the Public Works Project Management Bureau, supply chain issues have contributed to more delays and the work that was conducted in the early months of 2022 has taken longer than expected.
So far the “backbone of the project,” an irrigation mainline, has been installed underground along with sprinkler heads to make the lines functional throughout the site, said Surakas. Grading has also been completed for the main trail along the entire greenbelt and the next step would be to install the decomposed granite on top of the path.
Additionally, Public Works officials took into account how summer weather would affect newly planted vegetation. “We don’t want to put any little baby plants out there in July or August when they are just going to get fried,” said Surakas.
Throughout the summer, the infrastructure will be completed and planting and landscaping will be finished when the weather cools down in the fall.
As a result of the delay, another extension on the existing LA County funds was requested and granted. It will now expire on April 27, 2023.
In February, the city received an additional $660,000 grant from Rivers and Mountains Conservancy to cover labor costs along with landscaping, irrigation, dry stream beds and ADA-accessible picnic tables and benches that were not covered through the original grants.
Surakas said that when they realized that the original funds would not be sufficient, they began to consider where the project would need to be cut, but the money granted by Rivers and Mountain Conservancy allowed them to continue with the original plans.
The grant will expire on Dec. 31, giving Public Works and the Conservation Corps six months before the project must be complete.
“I don’t anticipate any other delays,” said Sarukus.
Officials are hopeful; residents remain cautious
As delays mounted, one of residents’ biggest concerns with the lengthy greenbelt construction was dust. They often post photos of dusty floors on the Wrigley Neighborhood Facebook group.
“When that wind picks up, we can’t have any windows open, we can’t go outside, and at times it has become unbearable,” said Danny Gutierrez, a nearby resident. Gutierrez said that at times, his kids could not go outside because of the dust and cars parked in the driveway would not stay clean for more than two days.
Surakas said that the city has since implemented a consistent watering schedule to secure loose dirt on the piece of land every day from Monday through Saturday.
In the meantime, residents are left waiting. And some have lost faith in the city to keep its promises.
“Everything is moving at such a snail’s pace that we don’t believe it will be done when they say it will,” said Gutierrez.
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