Dear Neighbor,
I am so excited to announce that yesterday afternoon the California Coastal Commission approved the design for the replacement Belmont Pool project. This is a huge step forward in the process toward construction.
The Belmont Pool project has been in the works since before I was elected and I have been glad to help lead this project for the past seven years. I want to thank our City staff and Coastal Commission staff who worked closely together to develop the current project. I also want to thank the Coastal Commission and Councilman Roberto Uranga, in particular, for his work to help improve this project as it moved through the process. I am grateful for the efforts of former Councilman Gary Delong and Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell for their efforts in starting the process before I was elected and their continued support. I want to especially thank and recognize the leadership of Mayor Garcia in helping get the project to this point.
I must also thank the community, the stakeholder committee, and everyone who has supported this project along the way by providing their input for the final project, especially our aquatics enthusiasts led by 5th District resident, Lucy Johnson.
This facility will be an amazing asset to the City hosting competitive swimming and diving competitions, as well as providing residents throughout the City with programming, recreational swimming, and active water play areas for children of all ages. The new Belmont Pool will be a place where high-school and collegiate athletes can compete, a place where seniors can take classes to stay active, a place where anyone can swim for enjoyment or exercise, and where kids of all ages from every part of our beautiful city can play as they develop the skills to swim.
This project has everything we as a City could ask for including multiple pools and recreational opportunities for all levels of swimmers and will include equitable citywide accessibility as a focus. Additionally, the new pool addresses concerns of sea-level rise by moving the facility out of projected modeling, and has reduced the height without losing any amenities to the public, not to mention a hugely reduced total cost. I am excited for this fantastic project to move on to its next step.
This has been a long time coming and I am so glad to see this project finally approved by the Coastal Commission. We are now ready to begin the next steps, which inclusive identifying the additional funding to build the project, putting together the building plans and developing a detailed outreach plan to engage residents from all parts of Long Beach to develop our programming plans.
