LA Waterkeeper and Riverpark Coalition Join Forces in Lawsuit against Long Beach over Approval of Pacific Place Self-Storage Project
The organizations will continue their fight to preserve open space in frontline communities, and protect the LA River from further development
September 25, 2025
Ben Harris, Senior Staff Attorney, Regulatory Affairs & Legal Policy
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 5 MINUTESAt A Glance:
Despite strong objections from LA Waterkeeper, Riverpark Coalition, and numerous concerned community members, the Long Beach City Council approved at its August 12 hearing a self-storage project at 3701 Pacific Place next to the LA River. In response, LA Waterkeeper and Riverpark Coalition are filing a lawsuit asserting that the City violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in approving the project. This lawsuit represents a final chance to require a legally adequate environmental review that fully discloses the project’s expected impacts—while also keeping alive the vision of a riverfront park that would advance equity and climate resilience in western Long Beach.
Long Beach Abandons Open Space Along the LA River
LA Waterkeeper has long advocated to restore the Los Angeles River as a climate resilience corridor for frontline communities most burdened by pollution. Yet local governments along the river have repeatedly prioritized development over preservation, building permanent structures on its banks instead of reclaiming floodplains or protecting scarce open space.
The City of Long Beach stands out as a particularly troubling example. Despite strong objections from LA Waterkeeper, Riverpark Coalition, and numerous concerned community members, the Long Beach City Council approved at its August 12 hearing a self-storage project at 3701 Pacific Place, along the LA River.
Western Long Beach communities—located along the “diesel death zone” of highways from the ports—are in dire need of environmental justice and green space. In 2007, the City’s own RiverLink plan even identified 3701 Pacific Place as a potential park opportunity site. But by approving the self-storage project, Long Beach has rejected its own stated vision and squandered one of the last chances to preserve open space along the LA River.
The Fight Over Pacific Place Continues
Our last blog post highlighted the critical opportunity that 3701 Pacific Place represents to bring green space equity to western Long Beach communities. Leading up to the Long Beach City Council hearing on August 12, LA Waterkeeper worked with a broad coalition of environmental and community-based organizations to submit a joint letter calling once again for a reconsideration of the land use at the site.
Unfortunately, despite our strong objections at the August 12 hearing, as well as comments from numerous concerned community members, the City Council approved the self-storage project at the Pacific Place site by a vote of 8-1 (the lone “No” vote coming from Councilmember Megan Kerr, whose district contains the project site).
It was disappointing that many comments from councilmembers suggested a profound lack of concern for the environment and community health. In presentations during the August 12 hearing, City staff claimed that the City is doing all it can to add park space in these overburdened communities, yet the City also recently approved the Intex Corporate Office and Fulfillment Center on the other side of the LA River. Further underscoring this neglect, the independent Long Beach City Auditor’s September 10 report also found that the City has been undercharging developers on fees for years, resulting in the loss of tens of millions of dollars that could have gone to projects like parks and other city services.
However, the fight is not over. Last week, LA Waterkeeper and Riverpark Coalition jointly filed a new lawsuit against the City of Long Beach to assert CEQA violations for the environmental analysis contained in the EIR. The petition identifies a variety of legal deficiencies with the EIR and several categories of environmental impacts that were not adequately assessed, including biological resources, water quality, and flooding. Our organizations seek the court to require Long Beach to conduct an adequate analysis of the public health and environmental impacts before proceeding with the self-storage project.
As the new CEQA lawsuit moves forward, LA Waterkeeper remains steadfast in its efforts to work with the City of Long Beach, and the developer, to find a new and better location for the self-storage project and preserve the Pacific Place site as open space. Even if the City has eliminated its own ability to self-fund new green space projects by undercharging developer fees, ample state funding still exists. Among other grant programs, Proposition 4 (passed last year) has begun to see allocations in this year’s legislative budget, signaling that hundreds of millions of dollars for floodplain reclamation and green space development may soon be available.
Will Long Beach answer the community’s call for open space along the LA River and meaningfully pursue available funding for green space in western Long Beach? Or will the City continue to prioritize unwanted development projects over public health? And if City leaders truly believe Pacific Place is not the right location for green space equity—as they have argued—then where else will they commit to making it happen?
Next Steps
As LA Waterkeeper and Riverpark Coalition continue to pursue a CEQA victory in court, we hope you will join us in putting pressure on the City of Long Beach to do right by its constituents. The LA River, and western Long Beach communities, cannot afford to watch silently while their health and environment suffer a “death of a thousand cuts.” To achieve our regional climate resilience and environmental justice goals, every decision matters