Housing community proposed on former oil well water treatment site

A developer has proposed building 226 homes on a stretch of Long Beach that had been a treatment site for oil well water.

Integral Communities wants to build 74 houses and 152 attached townhouses on the land, according to Urbanize. Eleven of the townhouses would be set aside as affordable. Most units would be two stories with some rising to three, and there would be over 500 vehicle spaces spread throughout the complex.

Called RiverPark, the project would rise along Golden Avenue with the Los Angeles River to its west and Interstates 405 and 710 to the north and south, respectively. The City of Long Beach published details of the development in an initial study last month, according to the report.

The development would comprise 15 acres; the remaining five acres would include walking trails, a soccer field, butterfly garden, and other recreational space.

The proposed development was for nearly eight decades a treatment site for oil well water; soil remediation was completed following the facility’s closure in 1998.

Integral Communities is planning further remediation, however, which would begin in October 2022 and last through June 2023, the report noted. Construction is expected to take nearly four years, wrapping up in summer 2026.

RiverPark is one of the few large residential developments to be proposed in Long Beach since the pandemic hit. Urbana Development and a local property owner proposed a 138-unit apartment complex in the city in the fall.

[Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch