*Originally Published 2011, Long Beach, CA

Long Beach – The second environmental impact report for the largest coastal project in memory to impact Belmont Shore-Naples.

The proposed condo tower, 100-room hotel, shopping and theater complex called 2nd + PCH had to undergo a redone environmental impact report, and a year after the first one, the much-awaited replacement went online for public review late Thursday at http://www.lbds.info/planning/environmental_planning/2nd+pch_.asp

The executive summary alone is 54 pages at the City of Long Beach’s Planning Department website. The public has several weeks to review the study and comment on it before it is finalized.

Citywide newsite lbreport also today posted a poll seeking reader comment about how Cal State Long Beach students are being wooed to support the complex with offers to win a free IPad2 for commenting on the project’s Facebook page.  http://www.lbreport.com/11ops/2ndpch/2pchipad.htm

With the expected release today of a new environmental impact report on the 2nd and PCH project, Patch is providing a recap of the proposed 12-story condo building, hotel, retail, restaurant and theater complex.

The developer is seeking to build a 100-room hotel, 191,474 square feet of retail, a restaurant and a 325-unit condominium of 12 stories; the project also seeks build a science center and theater of 99 seats.

Residents of Belmont Shore and Naples would perhaps most directly feel the project’s impact in daily traffic increases, but air pollution and other quality of life concerns have been raised. Supporters of the project include those who think the existing two-story Seaport Marina Hotel needs replacing at such a prominent corner near the Seal Beach city line.

Despite the EIR not yet being available, lead developer David Malmuth said the new one looks at virtually the same project as was studied in last year’s report. That draft EIR was withdrawn after criticism for inadequacies, which the project proponents acknowledged and which they believe are now addressed with this version.

The last EIR findings revealed, among other things, that increases in pollution during construction would exceed South Coast Air Quality Management District  thresholds.  Current toxic emissions in the air from the Port of Long Beach-related operations, combined with the traffic and the people that would be served by the proposed Second and PCH complex would cause surrounding air to be considered “a health risk.”  
 
Malmuth said prior to the new EIR document’s release that the city should weigh environmental and other negative impacts against “the package of benefits and amenities it’s getting that don’t exist now.”  
 
Other flags in the earlier EIR included: construction causing vibrations from pile driving that will affect adjacent properties.  The EIR’s findings stated that the impact would be unavoidable. 

The plan proposes to include over 1,400 parking spaces, including a valet service.

Needed before any approvals would be a zone reclassification and changes to the State Environmental Quality Act (SEQA), which would not presently allow for a 12-story high-rise structure that would cast a shadow on adjacent properties. such as restaurants and on-premise alcoholic beverage sales.

As required by law, an EIR has to examine other alternative scenarios, which include: not to do the project at all, to do the project but within existing city zoning standards, to build only the hotel or to build a lesser scaled alternative.  Malmuth told Patch “the project has to be economically sustainable just as it has to be environmentally sustainable,” and he said that if all of the projects plans are not approved, “it will lack the financial stability it needs to be a success.”

The release of the latest EIR today, if it indeed happens, invites comments for the final edition of the EIR that is set for April 4, according to the city’s website: http://www.longbeach.gov/civica/press/display.asp?layout=4&Entry=3197.