{"id":142693,"date":"2026-01-21T05:48:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/142693\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T05:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T05:48:06","slug":"a-beachside-pool-project-stalled-for-a-decade-new-parking-meters-may-be-its-savior-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/142693\/","title":{"rendered":"A beachside pool project stalled for a decade; new parking meters may be its savior \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of setbacks and delays, the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday approved a $105 million spending plan<\/a> to build a new aquatics center on the sands of Belmont Shore.<\/p>\n

The plan, which was approved unanimously, relies on future approvals for the city to borrow $24.5 million in bonds that would be paid back in large part by new parking meters at 1,800 public spaces around the Alamitos Bay Marina.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Construction is expected to start this summer and finish by spring 2028. It includes a 50-meter Olympic pool, with bleachers, movable bulkhead and four springboards; a shallow therapy and learning pool; spray zones; and a multi-use building with locker rooms, offices and changing areas. The facility will replace the temporary Belmont Plaza Pool, installed after the prior pool was deemed seismically unsafe in 2013.<\/p>\n

The temporary pool is planned to remain at least through construction. Afterwards, the city will negotiate with the California Coastal Commission on whether to close it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the project\u2019s budget \u2014 $77 million \u2014 is funded with cash in Long Beach\u2019s Tidelands Fund, which mostly relies on oil revenue. But a $28 million hole in the budget is forcing the city to patch together sponsorship revenue, small-time grants and \u2014 crucially \u2014 a $24.5 million bond to get it across the finish line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The formal action to issue debt would come back for council approval in June before its sale in July. Officials say they will schedule public hearings to solicit feedback.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To help pay back that debt, the city plans to start charging for parking at 1,800 spaces around the Alamitos Bay Marina that are currently free. If at least a fifth of those spaces \u2014 charged at $2 an hour \u2014 are filled at any given time, the meters would generate $3 million annually.<\/p>\n

Long Beach has proposed charging for those spaces before, saying it\u2019s rare to find free beachfront parking in a city of its size. But the idea, last studied in 2022, was rejected<\/a> by the city marine commission the same year over concerns<\/a> it would unfairly tax waterside patrons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even with City Council backing, it\u2019s not a certainty. Parking meters will require the city to apply for a permit from the Coastal Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision, in large part, marks the beginning of the end for the city\u2019s 13-year wait<\/a> for a new pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The facility, dubbed the Belmont Aquatics Center, has gone through multiple revisions in the past decade, with prices ranging between $60 million and $145 million. Originally envisioned as a $119 million domed natatorium and surrounding campus, the project has been pared down by unfeasible costs, declining oil revenues, environmental-related legal challenges and mandates by the Coastal Commission.<\/p>\n

Before even breaking ground, the project has cost $23.2 million<\/a>, largely for designs, redesigns, studies and permitting, including work from a dozen different consultants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further delays arrived last May when construction bids ran over budget<\/a> \u2014 each coming in at around $60 million \u2014 and were rejected. The city restarted the bidding process and reviewed three new offers in October. In a second round last fall, the city fielded three more bids, with the lowest coming in at $54.3 million for construction.\u00a0(Other costs in the $105 million budget include ongoing maintenance and programming at the pool.)<\/p>\n

Acknowledging he previously took issue with the project, Mayor Rex Richardson sought to downplay talk of a bond measure, saying that the timing and method of funding were appropriate to meet the city\u2019s 2028 deadline of having a photo-worthy asset ahead of the Olympic Games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs mayor, sometimes you inherit projects that are not perfect,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cAnd you have to make a decision: are you going to move forward and find a way or are you going to pass the buck onto the next generation or say that it\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the city presentation<\/a>, officials characterized issuing debt as a common strategy to fund long-term capital projects. Kevin Riper, the city\u2019s financial director, said in an email on Tuesday that bonds have been used to pay for improvements to the city convention center and construction of Fire Station 9.<\/p>\n

Barring a \u201cnuclear holocaust,\u201d tsunami, earthquake or \u201ceconomic catastrophe,\u201d Riper said he cannot see anything stopping the city from successfully selling the bonds this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all four cases, Long Beach residents and businesses will have much greater worries than financing the Belmont Pool,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One criticism that\u2019s dogged the project since its inception, and continued Tuesday, is that a pool would be better suited in inland areas of the city, where underserved communities need access to the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Richardson pushed back on this, saying talks are underway to build a pool at Ramona Park<\/a> in North Long Beach as part of the city\u2019s next major round of infrastructure projects. It would cost between $25 million and $32 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of setbacks and delays, the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday approved a $105 million spending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-142693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}