135 Linden - low parking requirements strike again

There will be a Planning Commission hearing November 2nd to approve of a new building at 135 Linden (see notice here). Once again, downtown's low parking requirements mean that there won't be enough parking for the new residents & businesses plus a parking lot will disappear.

The following is a letter that we sent to KOA (parking planners) and the city staff that is working on the parking study, just to make sure everyone involved is informed about what's happening.

Hello again, This is to let you know that now is a particularly good time to update the Planning Commission. Many people are frustrated right now because of what's happening in the process to approve new buildings downtown that won't have enough parking. We understand that final recommendations for parking regulations may not be available until late next year. However, even recommendations for temporary measures would help assure that the new buildings have enough parking for their own use. Without that, they are adding cars to our street parking at a rapid pace. There's a Planning Commission hearing for the approval of yet another new building downtown at 135 Linden. The hearing is November 2 but perhaps if they knew you could provide recommendations in the near future, they might postpone. On August 17, there was a PC hearing to approve a project at 320 Alamitos. A large number of frustrated people came to speak. Most of the objections were about parking. See the Commissioner comments in the attached letter; they felt they had no choice but to approve. Two appeals were filed. The October 24 appeal was cancelled at the last minute after a large number of people had already arrived to speak to City Council. (It was postponed to November 14.) It would help stop this mounting frustration if people knew someone was working toward a solution as opposed to what they've been seeing. Before that October 24 appeal, we sent City Council a letter summarizing the situation (see attached letter). We presented some options and suggested that they talk to you. (Remember that this item was postponed so it was set aside without any Council discussion yet.) You can see the Planning Commission comments saying that they want to review the situation, which other commissioners have also stated in the past 2 years. The parking study work scope includes a review of the city's policies so it's just a matter of presenting your work and doing so sooner would protect the integrity of residential parking (also part of the work scope).

Thanks for all that you are doing! Respectfully, Board of Directors, TAPS

You can see TAPS' letter to the Planning Commission here. We include it here so you can see the difficulties in getting this changed. Don't let that deter you from speaking up! Speakers at the meetings have helped.

Your letters have helped.

Send your letter to the Planning Commissioners via their secretary and ask her to forward to the Commissioners:

Heidi.eidson@longbeach.gov