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City Hall's "Queen Mary Land Development" Advisory Task Force Announces "A Presentation On Proposed World Class Icon on the Queen Mary Site"


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(July 23, 2016, 6:05 p.m.) -- An item has surfaced on the agenda of City Hall's "Queen Mary Land Development Task Force" to "receive and file" (hear but take no voted action on) "a presentation on proposed World Class Icon on the Queen Mary Site." As of Saturday July 23, there's no informational material agendized on what the proposed "World Class Icon" is...or how much it could cost and who would pay for it.

The Mayor-chosen Task Force (advisory only without substantive policy-setting power) is scheduled to hear the presentation on the "World Class Icon" on July 27 at 5:30 p.m. at the Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave. The meeting is open to the public.

A few months ago, speculation arose about a giant Ferris Wheel, imitating the Millennium wheel in London, the larger Nanchang wheel in China, the still larger wheel in Singapore and the current tallest wheel in Las Vegas at 550 feet; all provide slow speed observation views. In recent weeks, social networks have buzzed about possibly vying with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Modesto (among others) for a George Lucas Museum. Some have also suggested an aerial tramway to haul visitors from downtown Long Beach to the Queen Mary (docked across from downtown LB near the Port of LB's eastward sprawling Pier J.)

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None of these speculated concepts have involved serious discussions of costs or who would pay them, and it's unclear to what extent the City retains decision making power in the area since the City Council voted in November 2015 (re-voted in January 2016) to lease the Queen Mary and its adjacent land to Urban Commons, LLC for 66 years. (A previous long-term lease went through three previous lessees.) The Council's Nov. 17, 2015 vote (9-0) came without seeing the full lease terms (under Council practice, only a management-written summary memo) and without details on what the lessee plans to do with the QM-adajcent land. [LBREPORT.com coverage here.]

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In public testimony at the Nov. 17 Council meeting, retired Deputy City Attorney Jim McCabe raised a Brown Act issue -- that the agenda item failed to mention "Queen Mary" -- and questioned and criticized the transaction as agendized. When the Council shrugged the Brown Act issue, Mr. McCabe retained private counsel who submitted a formal Brown Act demand letter to correct the Council action. The City Attorney's office didn't concede a Brown Act violation but recommended that the Council rescind its prior vote and re-vote the item, which the Council did on January 5, 2016.

For the re-vote, city officials placed the Queen Mary item on the Council's "consent calendar" where no Council discussion would occur unless requested by a Council member and multiple agenda items are approved on a single recorded vote. Mr. McCabe again testified and urged Council caution on the lease; the Council again voted to approve the lease without seeing its exact terms and without details on what the lessee plans to do with the land next to the ship.

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A few months earlier, Mayor Robert Garcia created what he called a "Queen Mary Land Development Task Force," a dozen individuals he selected with mainly downtown business and development/design backgrounds. Neither the Task Force nor Mayor Garcia have policy-setting authority; the Mayor can make recommendations which LB's nine-member City Council can enact, modify or reject.

Long Beach has a history of promised "world class" or "regional destination" projects that haven't delivered as promised:

  • The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, initially presented as an operation that should be able to pay its debt service and operating expenses from its own revenue without tapping taxpayer resources, failed to draw visitors at projected levels. LB City Hall/Port ended up approving measures for the Aquarium that used taxpayer resources (although the Aquarium's private non-profit governing board years ago removed the name "Long Beach" from the Aquarium's official name.)

  • The "Queensway Bay Retail and Entertainment" project was supposed to be a major regional attraction that would provide "critical mass" for the Aquarium and downtown (a theme amplified by a Task Force created under Mayor Beverly O'Neill.) Residents who predicted it would become a "shopping center by the sea" were dismissed as "naysayers." The project, eventually re-branded as the "Pike at Rainbow Harbor," has since been rebranded as the "Outlets at the Pike." To gain state approval for retail uses not normally allowed in Tidelands areas, the City publicly acknowledged to the State Lands Commission that the Tidelands in the QW Bay/Pike area that had been under LB's municipal stewardship for decades were no longer usable for Tidelands purposes.

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Among concepts to energize the general area that have drawn grassroots interest has been a proposal to rebuild LB's former Cyclone Racer roller-coaster -- not using land next to the Queen Mary but on a pier alongside the faux Lighthouse fronting the L.A. River outflow. A developer/operator, Larry Osterhoudt, has offered to do so to the attraction's original crowd-drawing specifications without taxpayer cost and with revenue payments to the City. LBREPORT.com coverage here. The proposal is arguably consistent with City Hall's current policy to pursue possible Breakwater modifications that might restore some wave activity, and would simultaneously bring back the classic California beachfront boardwalk-style experience that made LB famous and continues to draw visitors/tourists in Santa Cruz and San Diego (and Disney has tried to artificially replicate, at pricey consumer cost, in inland Anaheim.)

Members of the Mayor-chosen Queen Mary Land Development Task Force, many with downtown ties, have thus far mainly focused on downtown-centered themes: connectivity to downtown, a water taxi to the ship from downtown, extending bicycle lanes from downtown or along the L.A. River to the ship...which address what downtown Long Beach interests may want, but may not be what the broader marketplace may want.

So...what is the "World Class Icon," how much will it cost and who will pay for it?

Developing...with further to follow on LBREPORT.com.



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