Consultants’ Grand Vision Humanizes L.B. Center : Grand Vision of Downtown L.B.: A Place for Everybody

LONG BEACH — Downtown through the eyes of a consultant:

Attractive, well-landscaped pedestrian corridors link one busy spot with another and are dotted by kiosks, sidewalk cafes, fountains and gazebos. Artists live and work in upper levels of older buildings; children visit an outdoor library outside the Civic Center. Next to the downtown core are two neighborhoods, the East and West Villages, each with a village square containing shops, services and a park.

In the picture are people--lots of them. And that is the goal of an ambitious blueprint unveiled this week to 500 business and civic leaders: to redesign downtown Long Beach so that more people will want to live, work, shop and play there.

“This is not unlike the scale of Disneyland,” said Leon S. Sugarman, of the architectural consulting firm which produced the $100,000 study for the city.

Sense of Unity Needed

Just as the famous entertainment park has a theme, a Main Street and a sense of unity, so should Long Beach, explained Sugarman, of San Francisco-based Kaplan, McLaughlin & Diaz.

Reaction to the proposal was mixed among the crowd gathered Monday at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel. Many, such as architect Ed Killingsworth, chairman of the Citizen Advisory Committee that worked with the consultants, were enthusiastic.

Hank Cunningham, the city’s development bureau manager, said: “We’re excited with the proposal. It describes how the downtown can best work as an economic and architectural unit.”

Others were skeptical.

“They’re 10 years too late. They’re trying to fix it after it’s already been built up,” said Sid Solomon, president of the Long Beach Area Citizens Involved. “Generally, the plan looks nice, with the street scaping and the cafes, (but) that’s just sugarcoating.”

Solomon said the members of his city watchdog organization who heard the presentation were concerned with the proposal’s emphasis on new high-rise buildings on Ocean Boulevard, which would block ocean views. He also said the group “didn’t hear very much talk” about moderate-income housing.

Excitement over the plan was tempered by concern among some that it did not address housing for lower-income people. “Where are they going to live?” asked Helen Graham. She said the problem would be particularly severe if the low-income housing now in downtown were razed to make way for high-rise developments.

Sugarman said housing plans would accommodate a mixture of income levels. “It isn’t just the richest who are going to come in,” he said. Such housing guidelines are the responsibility of the city and are not a part of the consultant’s first report, said Thomas Lollini, also of Kaplan, McLaughlin & Diaz.

A second report will provide more specific guidelines for development, city Planning Director Robert Paternoster said. In the meantime, city planners will review the report to see what and how the recommendations can be implemented.

The City Council will have final say on how, when and which of the recommendations will be implemented.

Councilman Tom Clark, who attended the presentation Monday, said afterward that some of the concepts could be accomplished through zoning requirements that forced developers to provide amenities. Other suggestions, such as creating parks, would be “extremely expensive” since the city would have to acquire the land and pay relocation costs to create open space.

Overall, Clark said he was pleased with the proposal. As a councilman for over two decades, he has seen several plans for downtown come and go. Most of the plans addressed land-use and were not as specific as this latest urban design proposal, Clark said.

The consultants’ plan is designed to strengthen the retail market. Pine Avenue is the place “for retail to happen,” Sugarman said. He added that retail buildings should be “enticing” and avoid the type of construction that closes off their interiors from public view.

Most of the report’s recommendations are focused on four areas of downtown:

The area along Ocean Boulevard between Pacific Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard would have commercial mixed-use development, and high-density housing south of Ocean Boulevard would be mixed with offices, hotels and civic, cultural, entertainment and recreational facilities.

This area, known as the City Center, would include special artists’ quarters in the upper levels of older structures, shops on the ground floors of buildings, and “a monumental civic billboard” to promote special city and cultural events” on the berm facing Ocean Boulevard and Pacific Avenue.

Ocean Boulevard--”the ceremonial boulevard of downtown Long Beach”-- would have attractive walkways linking developments and activities. Victory Park, which is broken up by driveways and streets, would be restored, with “rows of palm trees stretching from end to end . . . punctuated by gazebos, seating areas, fountains and ornamental landscaping.”

A major commercial project, including office buildings and a hotel, is recommended for the eastern end of Ocean Boulevard and a plaza is suggested at the foot of Pacific Avenue.

A residential East Village would be created between Long Beach Boulevard and Alamitos Avenue north of 1st Street, where existing residential structures would be upgraded and complemented by high-rise residences.

The village would feature neighborhood stores and a park in its center.

A West Village would be created between Broadway and 7th Street west of Pacific Avenue by “significant recycling” of substandard housing.

It also would have a central square and could be “further enhanced by development of the open space to its west as a citywide park.”