California’s Long Beach City Council has approved a proposal to develop a 14-acre piece of vacant land near the Los Angeles River into a self-storage, RV parking and car wash facility.
The latest vote authorized an environmental impact report and a zoning change that effectively paves the way for the project to be built. The lot is bounded by the 405 Freeway, the L.A. River and the Metro A-line. To its east, there’s the quiet, upscale Los Cerritos neighborhood, along with another park.
Environmentalists and some local residents have fought the project since it was first proposed in 2020, pushing for the land to instead be turned into a park. “We will continue to fight,” said Leslie Garretson, board president of the grassroots group Riverpark Coalition and nearby resident, after the vote.
“ I see it as a win-win for the city of Long Beach, its residents and its taxpayers,” said Sue Nantais, a nearby resident who supports the project. “I don’t agree with the argument that we need another park built on this private property.”
The lot sits on a vast floodplain of the L.A. River that was dredged and bulldozed for industry and development. In the 1990s, the lot was turned into a golf course that operated until 2007. Since then, the lot has been largely vacant, plagued by illegal activities and an eyesore for many in the community.
In 2019, Redondo Beach-based developer InSite Property Group bought the lot and proposed building a SecureSpace storage facility there to the Long Beach City Council, which has to review and approve developments in accordance with local and state law.
The lot has long been imagined by residents and officials as a potential large public park as part of efforts to green the L.A. River corridor. Nonprofits have inquired, but are unable to purchase the land due to high cost and an unwillingness to sell.
A rendering of the project at 3701 Pacific Place. Courtesy of the city of Long Beach.
The company building the storage site, SecureSpace, said it will build a public trail to connect to the L.A. River Trail that runs through the adjacent county–owned lot. They also say they’ll plant native plants, use solar panels to offset energy use, and conserve a protected area for endangered tarplants that have been identified on the property.
City officials argue that they can’t block the project because the property is privately owned and the city doesn’t have the funds to purchase the land, even if it were for sale. They say cleaning the soil to a safe enough level for a park and landscaping costs could come to tens of millions of dollars. The current proposal includes cleaning up the site to a lesser degree, since the developers are paving over much of the land.
City officials argue the area near the proposed storage facility already has enough green space
but some residents disagree, saying a park there wouldn’t just serve the wealthier neighborhood immediately adjacent to it, but also the broader western Long Beach community.
