Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Revised Douglas Park Plan Approved by Long Beach City Council

The City Council unanimously approved a revised plan for the massive Douglas Park business development Tuesday, despite protests from housing advocates who called for the restoration of a payment to the city's housing trust fund.

The new plan calls for up to 3.75 million square feet of commercial and light industrial uses, up to 250,000 square feet of retail uses and up to 400 hotel rooms at the development located at a 238-acre former Boeing manufacturing site on Lakewood Boulevard north of Long Beach Airport. The plan also includes 10 acres of open space, which would consist of several plaza areas, bike paths, pedestrian connections, street gateways and landscaping. "This is just the kind of project that Long Beach needs, because it means the creation of more jobs," 6th District Councilman Dee Andrews said.

However, the plan eliminates 1,400 housing units that had been proposed for the project when the council first approved it in 2004. Also absent from the plan is a $3 million payment to the city's housing trust fund, although $250,000 that already had been paid into it will remain.
Housing advocate Gary Shelton said that the council should still require that Boeing contribute to the fund, even though it no longer is building housing at the development. He and other advocates said some of the workers at Douglas Park will live in Long Beach and will need housing. You do have the powere this evening to restore that $3 million infusion into the housing trust fund," Shelton said.

Council members Tonia Reyes Uranga and Robert Garcia both expressed sympathy for housing advocates and a desire to increase the housing trust fund, but they still voted for the Douglas Park plan.

Tuesday was the second time that Boeing had taken its revised plan to the council this year.
The council first heard a version of the revised proposal in March, when the residential element had been removed. However, the council told Boeing then to make some changes, such as paying more for infrastructure improvements, traffic mitigation and parks.

The deal calls for Boeing to provide $8.25 million in on-site and off-site infrastructure improvements, a significant jump from the $1 million that had been offered in March.
Boeing also will provide $650,000 for housing and job training, $2.6 million in fee payments, $12.5 million for 10 acres of open public space, $1.6 million for landscape improvements at Carson Street and Lakewood Boulevard, and land for an airport safety zone.

The project is expected to create up to 13,200 jobs and more than $1.2 billion in annual direct and indirect payroll. Work on the first phases of the development, including a 47,500-square-foot Devry University campus on 3.7 acres at Lakewood Boulevard and Conant Street, already has begun.

(Paul Eakins - Long Beach Press Telegram)

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