Long Beach's future plans on display

City seeks residents’ input at seventh open house

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The city’s future plans sat inked on poster boards around an upstairs room in the public library on Aug. 9, as residents mingled, envisioning Long Beach’s new look and offering feedback on development and resiliency initiatives.

The city developed a comprehensive plan in 2007 that never got off the ground, and last year officials began re-examining a new one to address a variety of economic and environmental issues just a few years after Hurricane Sandy. The feedback sessions have continued, and the open house was the second of its kind this year.

“What we and our consultants have found is that it’s a valuable tool to give residents a chance to come in and see some things to react to, and then give them an opportunity to talk one on one or in small groups about what they’re seeing and how they feel,” said Patricia Bourne, the city’s director of economic development. “It’s a conceptual idea, not a development idea. It’s an idea of the kinds of things we’d like to see.”

The goals of the Comprehensive Plan — funded by state grants — include increasing environmental resiliency, creating a more sustainable year-round economy, providing diverse and affordable housing and developing more recreational areas. It also focuses on alleviating the tax burden with redevelopment that will create jobs, and making the Park Avenue downtown transit-oriented.

City Manager Jack Schnirman said that residents offered their input at five public meetings last year, two so far this year, and in a survey — part of the Long Beach Listens initiative — that had 1,200 responses.

“We’re going through rounds of revisions now and public input, and making sure that we’re delivering the plan that residents are looking for,” Schnirman said. “Hopefully you see people nodding as they look at things, because it reflects the input that they gave previously.”

In addition to an outline of the goals and priorities for the city — divided into different areas, including the bayfront, the oceanfront and the central business district — the plan contains visual renderings of proposed developments: an Ocean Front Cultural Park, a Magnolia Bayfront Marina, a Bayside Pedestrian Bridge and a Civic Plaza, which would host events and entertainment in the middle of town.

Perhaps the most dramatic concept is the city’s 20-year plan to restructure the central business district, including the addition of restaurants, offices, cultural venues, housing and open space on the Stop & Shop property to supplement the supermarket, parking and other retail already there. The plan includes moving the Recreation Center to Kennedy Plaza, which supporters say would allow more access to the facility for residents in the center of town as well as Long Island Rail Road commuters. Others say the center should remain where it is.

Bourne made clear that there are no commitments from the city and no developers involved yet. “By having a concept and a plan and drawings that people can view and give us comments on, it gives us consensus, which is what we want,” she said. “Therefore, when we go out for a developer, it makes it easier and more efficient, because we can say we already have a lot of people feeling that these kinds of things are important.”

City officials plan to increase protection along both waterfronts, including landscape-based infrastructure like rain gardens and permeable sidewalks and roads, as well as barriers to prevent water from reaching these areas in the first place.

The cultural park, for example, would include a parking structure behind the boardwalk that would be reinforced to supplement shore protection, as well as an evacuation point elevated above surge level. The planting of trees along oceanfront streets is also planned, in order to provide friction and absorption during flood events. Tree clusters at end of those streets would reduce their vulnerability, while maintaining ocean views for those in nearby buildings.

Along Reynolds Channel, a rendering shows a wall with gabions — cages or cylinders filled with rocks, concrete, sand or soil — to serve not only as protection, but also as oyster and mussel habitat. Piping through the road in that area would reduce flooding in the North Park neighborhood, and a park would be elevated 14 feet to protect it from storm surge.

“We did this after Sandy,” Bourne said, “and we realized we needed the tools, we needed the direction of how to protect and make Long Beach as safe as possible for the future.”

A few dozen residents spoke with city representatives about the ideas, while others sat at tables, discussing the plans with one another and filling out feedback cards.

“It was a nice surprise — I didn’t realize it would be that in-depth,” Long Beach resident Doris Noon said of the plan, though she added that she hoped to see the city cater a bit more to pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

Another resident, Pat Kinnier, described the 20-year plan as “ambitious.” “They’re talking [years] down the road, so it’ll have little impact on me at that point,” he said. “I mean, it’s a nice idea, I guess, if it all works out … and is developed the right way.”

An eighth open house will be held at the Martin Luther King Center in North Park on Aug. 23, and the final gathering, at which the city will present all of the feedback from the meetings, is scheduled for October

“We still want, after we get people’s input this month, to hear back from them, revise our plans again and therefore be more reflective of the community,” Bourne said. “In fact, the total number of meetings that we’re having in this process … is more than, typically, a community does. But we know Long Beach. We want to give people the opportunity to come and understand this and get their input.”