Should City Revive Bayfront Development Plan?

Imagine Long Beach has revived the idea of redeveloping the city’s central bayfront district primarily for recreational use, a proposal that the city entertained but never developed last decade.

Launched after Hurricane Sandy, Imagine Long Beach is a website created by local volunteers as “a place for people to share their dreams on how to rebuild our city: better, stronger and more vibrant,” according to the site’s “About” page.

Of the central bayfront development, Imagine Long Beach writes: “This area has so much potential as a gateway to Long Beach, and it is one of the first locations a motorists sees when driving over the Long Beach bridge. Boaters, tourists, parks, so much can be done here as well as working in conjunction with the residents that live close by.”

According to the city’s Comprehensive Plan Technical Memorandum from May 2005, a portion of the city’s 3.5 miles of bayfront is accessible to the public, roughly from Magnolia Boulevard to Monroe Boulevard; that is, from the Recreation Center to the tennis center, and includes a park, wastewater treatment plant and electrical substation.

The master plan from nearly nine years ago reads:   

“Redevelopment that could take place on the bayfront  could provide significant opportunity to enhance the area, create public waterfront amenities, and foster better utilization of water dependent and water enhanced uses … While the majority of this waterfront property has active uses, many of the uses could be consolidated and/or relocated to create a large swath of developable waterfront property.”

Imagine Long Beach revived this idea back in September, before Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would fund a $13 million storm protection project for Long Beach’s bayfront that would include a “Dutch Dam.”

What are your thoughts on the city reviving this plan or a variation on it light of the pending bayfront rebuilding? Let us know in the comments below: