By Doug Miller
The city's Planning Advisory Board will co-host along with planning firm Saccardi & Schiff a series of community-wide hearings seeking public input on the several issues needed to develop plan. The six meetings will happen on certain non-council meeting Tuesdays beginning Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Long Beach Library, when the topic will be beautification, streetscapes and visual character.
The second meeting will be Oct. 11 at West Elementary School on Maryland Avenue and deal with housing, neighborhood stabilization and historic preservation.
The third will be Oct. 25, at Lindell Elementary School. The topic will be economic development, waterfront and the environment.
The fourth will be Nov. 22 at East Elementary School at 456 Neptune Blvd. The topic will be infrastructure, community facilities and services.
The fifth will be Nov. 29 at the Senior Center on Magnolia Boulevard. The topic will be parks and recreation, land use and public policies.
The final meeting will be Dec. 13 at the Long Beach Public Library with the topic of parking and transportation.
All the public forums - which are known in the city-planning dodge as "charrettes" - will begin at 7 p.m.
City Council President Jim Hennessy said the location of each charrette is coincidental to the topic being discussed, with the exception of the Senior Center meeting, which will take place next to the city's recreation center.
"In order for this process to be successful and to create a master plan that guides the future growth of our city, we need to know what the vision of the people is so we can avoid the development mistakes of the past," Hennessy said. "This is the most important thing this administration has done in the past two years, because this is the vehicle by which we can tackle the overdevelopment problems we face and plan for the future."
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