Dear Friend of Los Cerritos Wetlands,

As you likely know, we, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, are staunch supporters of the effort to update the zoning (known as SEADIP) for the areas in and around Los Cerritos Wetlands. We are tired of fighting the various (and almost always inappropriate) development proposals that seem to pop up every few years. We think that one of the main reasons one developer after another "rolls the dice" with over-the-top proposals is that the zoning for the area is so old it is, for all practical purposes, considered non-existent.

Therefore it is exciting news that next Tuesday the City Council seems poised to formally accept the funds (and add in some of their own) to get SEADIP updating underway.

But something is missing, and that something is important. Despite our best efforts, so far there is nothing in place that will help make SEADIP updating successful by ensuring a temporary building moratorium, or something like it, will be in place while

Map of the SEADIP area of Long Beach that includes
Los Cerritos Wetlands. planning is going on.

We need a building moratorium (or something like it) so that the planning participants can work with accurate data and move forward using undistorted information. And by data I mean precise information about existing and projected traffic patterns, economic and environmental studies, and a through analysis of all of that information. That information is impossible to pin down if building projects are in the pipeline and undermining the available data while the updating process is taking place. This worries us.

After all, what good is community input if those involved in the process don't have good information with which to balance the interests of wetlands protection, landowner rights and community quality of life issues? In short, having that data is crucial to crafting a plan all stakeholders can support.

Please help protect Los Cerritos Wetlands by attending next Tuesday's City Council meeting which will start at 5:00 PM. The item we are interested in is Agenda Item #8.

Agenda Item #8. Where the City Council will be deciding whether or not to authorize a contract with The Planning Center/DC&E. They are the planning experts recommended by the City Planning Department to run the zoning updating process for the SEADIP area.

The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust doesn't really have an opinion about who should run the planning process. It is really more about how it should be run--using good data with robust community involvement, of course.

Long Beach City Hall is located at 333 West Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802

Please attend the meeting and help the City Council understand that without some sort of temporary halt to the large developments that we know are proposed for the area, SEADIP updating may well fail. And no one wants that.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Lambe,
Executive Director
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust