Southeast / Long Beach : PEACE PACT
After years of seething rivalry, Long Beach and Lakewood decided Tuesday night to bury the hatchet over how to use the site of a former Navy hospital.
Under an accord approved by both city councils, officials will permit Long Beach to convert the site into a shopping center with discount retailers such as Price Costco, but no factory outlets. In return, Long Beach will oversee $10 million of needed traffic improvements near the complex and will pick up the tab for managing the expected rise in traffic on the Lakewood side of the property. Long Beach also agreed to foot the bill for other revenue losses that Lakewood may suffer when the complex opens.
The pact clears the way for development of the site and cuts off a nasty inter-city tiff that once appeared to be destined for litigation, city officials said.
“There were no losers,” Lakewood Mayor Wayne Piercy said.
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