710 Freeway Expansion Effort Criticized

Plans to expand most of the Long Beach Freeway could require the purchase and demolition of nearly 700 homes and up to 259 businesses, depending on which design is selected by local officials in coming weeks, a consultant’s report shows.

But some people who live along the 18-mile route say they have never been informed about the mammoth project or how it could affect their neighborhoods. A chorus of complaints has grown in the last week, with some people calling for delaying any decision so they can learn more.

Residents interviewed this week in the Coolidge Triangle area of North Long Beach, for instance, said they had not heard that two plans under study could force the demolition of their local park and a number of homes.

“You’re not supposed to do it this way. People should know,” said neighborhood resident Iga Oppenheim.

In response, project spokesmen said Tuesday that they have worked hard to educate residents at numerous meetings and are organizing more sessions.

In fact, $569,060 was budgeted for “public outreach and consensus building” from January 2001 until the end of this year, said officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, the lead agency planning the project.

Planning engineers have spent more than two years studying how to ease congestion and expand the 710 Freeway from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles north to Commerce. Total costs could top $6 billion on a project that would not be completed until 2015 or later.

Supporters say the freeway must be expanded to ensure driver safety and to accommodate the ever-growing amount of cargo shipped in and out of the ports.

A milestone is expected in coming weeks, as two panels of local officials narrow a list of five possible alternatives to one. Three of those designs call for substantial construction, such as elevated lanes for trucks or car pools and buses, under the designs prepared by Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas, a national engineering firm.

The plan for elevated cars and buses could remove up to 694 homes and 149 businesses, while the elevated “truckway” plan could remove 519 homes and 259 businesses, according to new estimates from Parsons, Brinckerhoff. A third, less elaborate plan could force the purchase of 252 homes and 130 businesses.

From 7,200 to 10,800 people might be affected by the project, preliminary counts suggest.

A technical panel is due to vote on its preferred plan by April 23, and a policy panel is scheduled to follow in May.

In recent days, however, some residents along the freeway have complained that too little information is being released. Those criticisms spilled into public view at two meetings on the project last week organized by state Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach).

“It’s been very difficult for the public to gain information,” Dr. Elisa Nicholas, project director of the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma, said during a hearing Friday.

Lowenthal said Tuesday that he believes public officials must do more to involve residents. He was struck by how many people attended his standing-room-only town hall meeting Thursday in Long Beach, he said.

“I don’t think it took a rocket scientist to realize that there was a sense of frustration in the room,” he said.

Long Beach Vice Mayor Frank Colonna said Tuesday that he, too, is concerned about the public outreach process. The policy panel that he chairs may be able to delay a decision until July or early August to ensure that residents are involved, he said.

The Coolidge Triangle neighborhood would be affected most dramatically by the elevated car-pool plan but also by the “truckway” proposal. Both could require the removal of Coolidge Park, a popular recreation area.

“How come we weren’t informed? That’s the part that alarms me the most,” said Dave San Jose, vice president of the Coolidge Triangle Neighborhood Assn.

He recalled that a project representative addressed the group last spring, when 12 alternatives were being studied.

“It was just a lot of jaw service,” San Jose said, adding that the representative gave “hardly any information at all.” Only last week did San Jose learn informally that the project is moving forward.

Phil Hampton of Adler Public Affairs, one of several consultants working for Parsons, Brinckerhoff on community outreach, said that “every effort is being made to invite and encourage comment from the public on this important study.”

The technical panel reviewing the plans will meet at 1:30 p.m. today at Progress Park, 15500 Downey Ave., in Paramount.

It will meet to select a plan at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and April 23 at the Long Beach Energy Department, 2400 E. Spring St., in Long Beach.