Help us plan for planning.  After all, it's your community and your wetlands; therefore your voice matters. 

The timeline in the above photo is a little out-of-date but nevertheless is a great example of what happens when zoning for an area is so old that developers think they can ignore it.

Dear Friend of Los Cerritos Wetlands,

It can't be easy to be a landowner or developer trying to figure out what can or cannot be done with your land when it is within a planning area (SEADIP) that is over 30 years old.

So what do you do?  Well, if you are a developer,  I guess one approach would be to throw one thing at the wall after another and hope something sticks.   As you can see by the timeline above, that is an apt description of what has happened with land on and around the Los Cerritos Wetlands.  And if you are a developer observing that others have been granted zoning exemptions, well, why shouldn't you try to get the same?  The current zoning for the area is out-of-date, doesn't reflect current norms or science about how wetlands should be treated (in fact some parts of SEADIP would permit development on the wetlands) and therefore leaves landowners and developers guessing about how best to proceed to update or redevelop their property.

Look at what happened with Second+PCH, for example.  If there was one common area of agreement within the community it was that the Seaport Marina hotel property needs to be updated and improved.  The question was, and is, how to do that in a way that is fair to the landowner, fair to the community and doesn't harm the wetlands.  The solution is and was, as the City Council wisely decided, that the zoning for the area should be updated. However, the process to update the zoning must be done in a fair and transparent manner.  

So how do you do that?  Well for starters, you involve community members and stakeholders in the process right from the beginning.  That is the right and sensible thing to do, and that is what we, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust plan to do while we wait to hear back from the City how they are going to proceed with planning for the area.  The way we look at it, any and all community-based outreach we do will be of value to the planning process as a whole, so why not start?  

Therefore we invite you to what might be the most interesting and important Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust meeting yet.  And that is a meeting where we will be asking you to describe (and then sharing with the City) the best procedure for creating an updated SEADIP plan.

And, as with everything we do, we want to do it right, and we want to do it with integrity, so we have asked MIG, a professional planning consulting firm, to run this important meeting and guide our discussion.  In that way all voices and ideas will be heard, heard fairly, and noted.

We invite you to join us as we embark, with your partnership, on this important aspect of our wetlands protection work.

• What:  Community Meeting to "Plan for Planning"
• Why:    So that right from the start we will be doing our part to ensure that all voices are heard regarding the updating of SEADIP. It's just the right thing to do for the wetlands, for our community and yes, for future developers.
• Who:     You, your friends, and your neighbors.
• When:   Saturday,  March 3rd at 9:30AM 
• Where:   The Golden Sails Hotel meeting room - 6285 East Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, CA  90803 

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For more information or to RSVP, email ejlambe@verizon.net or call 714/357-8576.

To learn more about MIG, the work they do and to check out their impressive client list click here.

Hope to see you on March 3rd.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Lambe

Executive Director

Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust