“The city treated this variance as if it were my neighbor asking for a taller fence. It’s not,” said resident John Ashmead. “It’s a paradigm shift in the Long Beach landscape. The city should have had question-and-answer meetings with residents, advice from planning experts and made their case and listened to the views of residents. It wasn’t a run-of-the-mill variance request, and shouldn’t have been treated that way. I’m not opposed to development of the Superblock; I welcome it. Most residents I know would have welcomed it with open arms at 10 stories or below, and would grin and bear it at maybe even 11 or 12. But this? No.”

Attempts to revitalize the Superblock date back to the 1970s, and Chamber President Michael Kerr said that development is long overdue. “We haven’t had retail there since the 1960s,” Kerr said. “We’re very proud that it was passed, and it will enhance the city greatly. It will get rid of that blight that sat there for too long, and it will bring in additional tax revenue to the city and school district. And the merchants should benefit from the residents of the building.”