New Belmont Pool Facility Awaits State Approvals

If all goes as planned, construction of a modern, $103 million, new beachfront indoor/outdoor public pool facility to be called the Belmont Beach and Aquatic Center could start as soon as fall 2019, according to city officials.

However, what the final project will ultimately look like is now up to the California Coastal Commission, which will consider certifying local coastal development permit entitlements and an environmental impact report (EIR) after the Long Beach City Council granted approvals last month.

If approved by the state regulatory agency, the project, which is mostly being paid for through tidelands oil funding, will return to the city council for a final decision on whether to proceed, city staff said.

The new pool facility planned to become “one of the most unique and spectacular aquatic centers in the United States” is being built to replace the city’s former Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool that was closed in 2013 and demolished a year later after studies deemed it a public safety hazard due to structural deficiencies.

The beachfront pool facility had been in existence since the late 1960s, after Long Beach voters agreed to its location.

During a public hearing on May 16, the city council approved an EIR for the new pool facility along with a mitigation monitoring and reporting program, a site plan review, a conditional use permit, standards variance and local coastal development permit entitlements.

City Manager Patrick West said the new pool complex, expected to feature a 125,500 square-foot natatorium within a contemporary elliptical or dome-like structure resembling a “bubble,” will sufficiently replace the city’s “legendary” Belmont pool facility that had produced Olympic athletes in several aquatic sports and where many residents learned how to swim.

“This is one of the more exciting and complex projects we as a city have worked on, creating a $100 million aquatics facility for the entire city to enjoy and to use,” he said.

Assistant City Manager Tom Modica said the new pool facility is designed by architects with input from a stakeholder committee of aquatics groups and nearby residents to be a “world-class facility that serves all aquatic needs” and will be “unlike any municipal aquatics facility on the West Coast.” He said the complex will serve residents in the city, region, state and nation.

Complex goals of the project include building a facility that would be “in harmony with the neighborhood,” employ an “iconic and sustainable design,” meet needs of local residents, support competitive aquatic events as desired and follow state environmental regulations, he said.

In a presentation, Modica said architects designed the complex, which will cover a 5.8-acre site, to have 127,000 more square feet of green space than the former facility. One change includes converting E. Olympic Plaza Dr., a small street in front of businesses, into a public open space closed off to vehicles and to be called Olympic Way with elements honoring Olympic athletes, he said.

As for parking, Modica said nearly 1,050 parking spaces currently exist in the area, while a project to redevelop the Granada Beach parking lot will add an additional 150 spaces.

The city council denied appeals brought by some residents who have objected to the project’s beachfront location, size, conceptual design and cost, while citing impacts to traffic, parking and obstruction of coastal views. Some residents raised concerns the city inadequately followed city code by failing to properly erect story poles for public observation.

Jeff Miller, a 34-year Long Beach resident and one of the appellants, said the project should be revisited with a more suitable location other than on the beach. While also raising concerns about increased traffic and obstruction of views, he said the project’s expensive price tag is mainly due to the pool facility being required to withstand sea-level rise, wave refraction and shoreline erosion, and the pool facility should be built elsewhere in the city, such as at a site downtown.

Modica noted that the city received a letter from California Coastal Commission staff about potential concerns, including: analysis on alternative locations; height and view corridor obstructions; local coastal plan conformance; and potential sea-level rise and wave uprush issues.

He said the city is currently in the process of responding to such concerns as the approval process moves forward, adding that city staff is currently working on an application to submit to the coastal commission, with a decision expected within the next year.

“We’ve had several meetings with coastal staff,” Modica said. “We take the Coastal Commission input very, very seriously and we will continue to work with the commission if this goes forward in the process.”

In an interview with the Beachcomber, Modica confirmed that more than $41 million is still needed for construction of the pool facility to move forward.

While the city has set aside $61.5 million in tidelands oil revenue for the entire $103-million-budgeted project, the city is now considering bringing on a private fundraiser to cover the remaining cost after a steep drop in the price of oil in recent years, he said.

A request for proposals (RFP) to hire a consultant to drive the private fundraiser is expected to be launched in the next few months with an aggressive fundraising goal of $50 million, Modica said. If funding is secured and state approvals are granted, construction could start by late 2019, he said.

sean@beachcomber.news