(June 19, 2013) -- Last night [June 18] the Long Beach City Council voted to move forward and approve a contract with The Planning Center/DC&E, beginning the effort to update the zoning (known as SEADIP) for the areas in and around Los Cerritos Wetlands. While we want to be optimistic because we are tired of fighting inappropriate development proposals that seem to pop up every few years, we are at the same time disappointed because the City declined to act on our idea of a temporary halt to building in the area while SEADIP updating moves forward. Maybe they will; we just don't know. Councilmember Gary DeLong did say he is working with City staff on a plan to allow "benign" rather than "impactful" development in the SEADIP zone while the zoning is modified.

However, in the meantime a proposed new development, "The Shoppes at Second and PCH" will be moving forward, concurrently while SEADIP updating is going on.

As proposed, the Seaport Marina Hotel at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Second Street would be razed and in it's place would go a retail complex. We hope the specific details of the proposal will be coming shortly. But from what we have learned so far, a large retail complex like that one sure could generate a lot of traffic!

Oh, and don't forget it was only a few weeks ago that yet another development proposal Lovely photo of the wetlands behind the Marketplace mall. Is it perhaps in the pathway of the extension of Studebaker Road? Maybe, if the proposal to development the pumpkin patch moves forward. was on the City Council agenda and then, surprisingly, pulled at the last minute. That proposal was for the wetlands property usually referred to as the Pumpkin Patch. It consisted of a 57,000-square-foot retail center with two major tenants and a bank building and retail shops along Pacific Coast Highway.

I just can't help but wonder which other large landowners in the area plan to jump ahead of the SEADIP updating process with their own separate and individual development proposals. Why do I wonder that? Because that's what happened when SEADIP was being hammered out the first time. Some development projects were pushed through at the last minute to avoid the new rules. That was over 25 years ago. Couldn't it happen this time too?

We are sorry that so far the City hasn't put into place a temporary moratorium while SEADIP updating is going on. Maybe they will. However, we stand by ready to help make the process as successful as possible. We just wish we had a better idea of how...