July 17, 2018: Ruling on a challenge to the EIR by LB's grassroots Citizens About Responsible Planning (CARP), Superior Court Judge James Chalfont concludes that the City-proferred EIR -- in which the City said the Elephant Lot was unavailable -- satisified minimum legal requirements. Citing previous court rulings that upheld the authority of decision-making City Councils to approve projects that meet minimum legal standards even if, in the opinion of challengers, they aren't optimal or wise, Judge Chalfont notes that the EIR says the City considered alternative locations for the pool, including the "Elephant Lot." (The ruling effectively invites the City to advance the pool project to the CA Coastal Commission.) Sponsor



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August 28, 2018: Mayor Garcia (who has no approval power) tells the public (which hasn't been asked) to expect intense development along what was once LB's downtown beach but is now a "waterfront" with no beach. At an event he describes as "Building A Better Long Beach," Garcia signals his support for more intense development south of Ocean Blvd., including the "Elephant Lot." He says a "visioning" process will take place for the Downtown Shoreline Planned Development area PD-6 [Power Point slide text] "creating a new Specific Plan for this area" and signals that he plans to steer the public conversation by indicating a "task force" [whose members he'll likely choose] will discuss [Power Point slide text] a "long term development plan to strengthen existing uses and promote new uses that enhance the shoreline." Sponsor





Feb. 25, 2019: The City of Long Beach issues a carefully written statement that effectively indicates the Elephant Lot has been the subject of discussions invovling publicly unidentified City of Long Beach officials over an unidentified time period related to the CA Angels possibly relocating from Anaheim to Long Beach for a speculated stadium someone will pay to build on the Elephant Lot. Sponsor



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March 12, 2019: A publicly agendized closed session of the City Council is scheduled March 12, 2019 at 3 p.m. citing the Brown Act exception to open meetings to conduct discussion with city management on "price and terms" for "lease and/or purchase" of the Elephant Lot. [UPDATE: Mar. 19, 8:26 a.m.: Kevin Lee, City of LB Public Affairs Officer emails LBREPORT.com: "The Closed Session item...is related to the ongoing conversations with the Angels regarding a potential sports venue in downtown Long Beach." [end UPDATE] The agendized item lists an LLC and not the Angels as the party with whom negotiations are taking place. LBREPORT.com raises Brown (open meetings) Act issues on the agendized item at this link. Developing.

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