Integral Communities will develop 226 homes along a polluted stretch of the Los Angeles River in North Long Beach.
The Newport Beach-based developer was approved by the City Council to build the gated community at 12 Baker Street, the Long Beach Post reported.
The low-lying residential development – with single-family homes and no tall buildings – is among the most significant new master planned communities in L.A. County in years.
The Wrigley Heights site was used for oil wastewater treatment for decades and will require major remediation before homes are built. Integral said the project could be completed by 2026.
Plans call for 74 two-story single-family homes, 99 two-story townhomes and 53 “carriage” townhomes on 20 acres east of the river between the 405 Freeway and Wardlow Road.
The project, known as River Park, will include 12 affordable homes for very-low income buyers with an annual income of $59,500 or less for a family of four.
It will also include improvements to Baker Street Park and a traffic signal at its entrance on Wardlow Road.
Residents opposed to the project said it would eat into diminishing open space along the river while adding traffic and local greenhouse gasses. They also said the site had been targeted in 2007 by the city for a future park.
Juan Ovalle, president of the Riverpark Coalition, said the area “needs environmental justice, not a gated community.”
Ovalle also said the project should have been continued until the area’s councilmember could meet and hear constituents’ concerns. Councilmember Roberto Uranga, who represents the area, has been absent since suffering a stroke in late September.
The city said the project was entitled to have the council vote on it within 60 days, according to Long Beach policy.
Christopher Koontz, development services director for the city, said the River Park project was one of the best the city has ever negotiated and includes a nearly 5-acre public park and 12 units of affordable housing, both of which were not requirements of the project.
The approved housing development has already conducted an environmental review, with its remediation plan approved by Los Angeles County, according to an Integral spokesperson.
Ovalle’s group recently scored a legal victory over a different project just north of the River Park housing site.
Last month, a judge ruled that Insight Property Group, the developer behind a proposed self-storage facility, needed to conduct an environmental review. Its opponents want the riverfront site turned into a public park.
— Dana Bartholomew
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