Downtown Long Beach is the only significant urban center in the region that directly engages the Pacific Ocean, and the Shoreline district is Downtown’s gateway to the waterfront. Consequently, the Shoreline district is of significance to Long Beach and the region as a whole. Like many similar waterfront areas around the world, Shoreline contains a mix of uses and associations. It is home to iconic residences, offices, hotels and restaurants set amid the City’s convention center, harbors, marinas, shoreline parks and beaches. It serves as a residential neighborhood, a workplace, a tourist destination, an active waterfront for mariners, and a venue for regional events. Sometimes these uses, and their competing priorities can produce many ideas about the future of the Downtown Shoreline area, which makes a comprehensive outreach effort to build consensus around a common vision for the future necessary. 

However, the regulatory zoning document for this area, Downtown Shoreline Planned Development (PD-6), was drafted prior to 1980 and was last updated in 2011. To update the plan the City is undergoing a visioning process and will be preparing a new plan that will replace PD-6 with a contemporary specific plan. The vision plan will embrace the City’s recent growth and look to future opportunities in this area for further housing, hospitality and recreational development.

The Plan represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to craft a community-based vision for the future that embraces the Shoreline area’s wide range of stakeholders, accommodates continued growth, and proactively addresses sea level rise. After the visioning process, PlaceWorks will prepare a specific plan, complete the appropriate environmental reviews, and guide the Plan through local, state, and California Coastal Commission approval processes. The new specific plan will update current development regulations and facilitate repositioning of existing uses and resources in the Downtown Shoreline area which will be informed by the visioning process.

PlaceWorks and our team members— Studio One Eleven, HR&A Advisors, Moffat & Nichol International, Fehr & Peers, Fuscoe Engineering, Inc., LSA, SWCA Environmental Consultants, and McCabe & Company—are honored to be part of this notable project, and we look forward to working with the community and City of Long Beach.

As PlaceWorks’ Principal of Urban Design, Alan Loomis is Principal-in-Charge of the Long Beach Shoreline project team.

Press:

“Baseball Park? Bike Parking Garage? Residents weight in on Downtown development “ Long Beach Post [September 9, 2023]

“Long Beach looks to update zoning for Downtown, waterfront entertainment area” Long Beach Post [May 23, 2023]