Council Decides on Port Plan for Long Beach Shipyard

International trade is the best option for recycling the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, the City Council decided this week.

Closing the door on months of discussion over how to redeploy the shipyard’s 254 acres when they become available next year, the council recommended giving most of the property to the Port of Long Beach so it can build a container terminal.

If federal authorities concur with the city’s recommendations, the shipyard at Terminal Island also would host a new police academy and headquarters, as well as ship repair and scrap facilities.

City and port officials hailed Tuesday’s decision as a potential windfall for the region’s economy, which they said would bring up to 1,600 permanent new jobs in addition to $500 million in construction contracts.

“We consider this an important enhancement to the port to meet the international trade needs of Southern California and the nation as a whole,” said Gordon Palmer, manager of master planning at the Port of Long Beach, the nation’s busiest port.

Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill said she would urge federal officials to move as quickly as possible to convey the property to the city and the port.

“I just hope that the . . . process will be expedited so that we have some reuse of this property as soon as possible,” O’Neill said. “We’re losing so many jobs that we need this [conveyance process] to become a solution, not a problem.”

Although the shipyard is scheduled to close Sept. 30, 1997, environmental cleanup will have to be completed before construction begins. Still, port officials said they expect to have the container terminal at least partly operational within months of the closure.

The council’s reuse plan stems directly from the recommendations of a 23-member committee representing various community and business interests. Throughout 15 recent public hearings they considered proposals ranging from a planned community to an adult sports complex.

Included in the council’s recommendations was a request that any new employment--particularly at the proposed 18-acre ship repair facility--be given to the estimated 3,000 shipyard workers who have lost or will lose their jobs at the shipyard. However, port officials said the operation will probably provide no more 450 jobs.