Recommendation to declare ordinance amending and restating the Belmont Pier Planned Development District (PD-2), read and adopt as read.  (District 3)
Thank you. I think we have a hearing number 19 next. 1818 is next. Great report from Development Services Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and find the project exempt from secure. Declare ordinance amending and restating the Belmont Pier Plan Development District. An ordinance amending the Use District map from the Belmont Pier Plan Development District. Read the first time and later of the next regular meeting of the City Council for final reading. Adopt three resolutions approving a general plan amendment to the local coastal program element of the General Plan, amending the implementation plan land use map and authorizing director services to submit the LCP amendment to the California Coastal Commission District three. Thank you. There a brief staff report on this. Yes. I'd like to again introduce Deputy Development Services Director Christopher Coons to introduce to present this item. I thank you, Vice Mayor and Councilmember Price, similar to the previous item. We have a, um, a trustee vendor for our planning barrel manager is available for any questions we can provide information. Much like the previous item. This is a matter that has been worked on for many years and concluded at the local process. It went to the Coastal Commission and the Coastal Commission made changes and council tonight was asked to conform those changes. What this matter does relate to the Belmont Pool. It's important to understand the item in front of you tonight has to do with the zoning for the pool and not the design of the pool itself, or financing of the pool or any of the other matters related to the pool. So with that, we're glad to answer any questions or provide a PowerPoint if necessary, to you. As a member price. Well, I think on this one, if you could go through the PowerPoint, it does. I know that's a lot of procedural changes. So it may not be the most exciting one, but there's a lot of public interest in it. Absolutely. So if we could get that up in the back. No offense, but your area of expertize is not of mass levels of interest. So by everyone of everyone. So the technical. Well, well aware. It's very technical. Okay. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, council members Patricia Devendorf, her planning bureau manager, as was already described briefly, this item is essentially a local coastal program amendment to amend the land use and tax changes associated with the Belmont Pier Plan Development District, which is a PD two. And we'll complete the final legislative actions needed for the local Coastal Program Amendment. These amendments are the enabling legislation that are needed to facilitate the the Belmont Beach and Aquatic Center project. No. Having some trouble with the. Next slide, please. Okay. Okay. Recent actions on the project have included the Planning Commission's approval of the changes to the PD two ordinance. The Council's original adoption of those changes, which occurred on January 21st of 2020. The adopted changes to the PD two required an amendment to the local coastal program, which is a part of which PD two is a part of the local coastal program and the local implementation program. The Coastal Commission took action on the LCP amendments February of this year, approving the LCP amendments with suggested modifications, as was recommended to them by the Coastal Commission staff. At that time, the Coastal Commission also approved the coastal development permits for the pool. Adoption of the LCP amendments with suggested modifications must be completed before August of this year. That is the deadline to return the informed changes to the Coastal Commission. Pardon me. The Coastal Commission provided nine suggested modifications to the local coastal program via amendments to the PD two. The staff has incorporated all of those. Coastal Commission suggested modifications to bring PD to the Pier two ordinance into conformance with the local coastal program amendments as modified by the Coastal Commission. They largely are modifications to clarify PD two and LCP policies and to establish PD two development standards and clean up the ordinance the zoning associated with a barrier within the PD two area. None of these amendments with adversely affect the Poole project or existing land uses businesses or residences. Specifically, the suggested modifications included changes to the zoning map, which is shown here as well as text changes. This page summarizes the zoning map changes, which is a change that will revert one area of PD two to its previous zoning of R for R. A previous zone change to PD two was not certified by the Coastal Commission. So this just restores the zoning that has been in existence there for some time. With the deletion of the previous sub area for the the remaining suburbia is renumbered. So suburbia five becomes a barrier four. And that is those are the changes to the map. The changes to the text bring the audience into consistency with the Coastal Commission policy and language that was previously certified by the Coastal Commission, that some clarifications to the public and recreation access purpose, for example, in the standard of review for projects where among those changes. So just to summarize, the five local actions listed here are needed by the City Council tonight to complete the local Coastal Program Amendment, which was previously approved by the City Council. They include PD two zoning ordinance and text map changes. General plan amendments to the local coastal program to implement. The Coastal Commission suggested modifications and a resolution to direct staff to resubmit these changes to the Coastal Commission for Final Certification. These actions are exempt from CEQA, as are all actions related to the preparation or adoption of local coastal programs. This project also had a project, Air and air addendum that it is here to offer, and those also are in effect and analyze the environmental impacts of the project activities, including these final legislative actions. These legislative actions do not create any new significant environmental impacts that were not already analyzed in that year. And so no further secret documentation is required. Noticing was done in accordance with requirements of the zoning code of the city and the Coastal Commission regulations and all previous commenters were notified or comments received on this matter tonight were forwarded to the City Council prior to this hearing. So just to sum up the this slide just shows the actions that are before the council again approving a zoning code amendment to the PD two ordinance and text approving zone change to the PD two Zoning map approving general plan amendments to implement text changes and map changes to the local coastal program, and adopting a resolution to authorize the director to resubmit these changes to the Coastal Commission. That concludes the presentation. And again, we're happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Have to go back to Councilman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you so much for that presentation. I take it back, it was totally, very exciting and I really appreciate you putting forth it. This is a much more technical presentation on this project than we've had, but I really do appreciate you going through it. I want to thank all the Long Beach residents who have been involved in this project for years and the appellants. Even though the appeal was not successful at the Coastal Commission, it did provide an opportunity for us to have meaningful discussion regarding the issues raised in the appeal and to work on those issues to obtain a project that is a lot more more mitigated than I think what was initially presented. I want to give a special acknowledgment to my predecessor, Councilman DeLong, my former colleagues, Councilwoman Lowenthal, and Councilman O'Donnell, who's now on the assembly, who really fought very hard for this project before I ever took office and were supportive of this project and setting aside some of the initial funding. I want to especially thank Councilman Suranga for his work on this item with the Coastal Commission. I had the opportunity to attend that Coastal Commission hearing and I have. A new. Level of respect for him because of the amount of work that is required to wade through some of these very technical issues. This one not excluded. Among those topics, and I really appreciate his thoughtfulness in listening and meeting with everyone on all sides of this issue. I want to thank the Coastal Commission because they have worked with the city staff who are the heroes of this project. The city staff worked with the Coastal Commission all during 2022 and 2020 to really address all the concerns and come up with a project that is smaller in scope than initially contemplated, but certainly something that everyone can live with and feels very comfortable. With moving. Forward. And especially I want to thank them for some of their programmatic opportunities and outreach efforts to provide this as an access opportunity for everyone throughout the city and through the region. This facility is going to be an incredible asset for both competitive swimmers as well as residents throughout the city who are of all ages. It's a place for high school and collegiate athletes will be able to learn and master their craft a place where seniors can take classes to stay active. A place where children can come for simple recreation and the splash pools and kids of all ages can enjoy our beautiful city at a very low cost. This has been a long time coming, and I'm so glad to see that this project has has finally made it to this point where we've been successful at working with Coastal Commission on developing developing a project that's realistic and feasible given its location and the funding. So I want to thank everyone who was involved, especially our city staff, especially our city manager, who's been a champion for this project. And I want to and our mayor our mayor has been a wonderful, wonderful advocate. I can't I can't talk about this project without talking about his support for a prudent and mitigated project that would be acceptable to all those who are interested as stakeholders in this in this project. So I want to urge my colleagues to support this item and thank you for the time. Councilwoman, we do have a motion in a second to a public comment. Ma'am. I'm calling for public comment. Thank you so much. Uh, we have ten speakers. Lucy Johnson. Joe Wainstein. Duffy McCormick. Actually, I'm sorry. We just need to please refrain from all of that to some folks. Come up and speak at times a lot. And so we'll call the first five speakers up. Go ahead. Lucy Johnson, Joe Weinstein, Debbie McCormick. Jessica Payne and Christiansen. Please line up. Good ending there. Garcia and council members. I'm Lucy Johnson, a resident of the fifth District. And I've been a proponent of this pool for since 1968. Here we are again. It's been eight. Years and five months, almost to the. Day since the city closed the original Belmont Pool. Belmont Plaza, Olympic pool. Eight years and five months. So just so very thankful that we finally got to this point that the project is approved by the Coastal Commission and that this is just a cleanup item technically. To match up language in. Various parts of the Coastal Commission approval and. The city's. Ordinances as they have been. So we appreciate that. Hopefully this is the next to the last time we'll. Be back in front of you. With the last time being. Hopefully when you approve the contract for the construction. So thank you very much for all your efforts. Tom BODETT, the city. Staff, Chris Coons, Eric Lopez, Josh Hickman, Susie Pryce, all the council members that have been supportive of this and. In Councilmember Durango for the efforts on the Coastal Commission itself. Thank you. Well, I'm Joel Weinstein. Like my colleagues in Carp, we support the idea. More swimming and other aquatics. The problem with this project is not the goal, it's the specifics. In particular, the utterly irresponsible choice of the project site. The choice of the site for the former pool was okay in the sixties because no one saw threats from quakes, liquefaction, tsunamis, sea level rise. But now, knowing what we do, this is an idiotic site choice. The site choice makes Long Beach a leader in climate denial. Just see Melinda Amendments. Cotton Melinda Cotton's submission to you. The site as a result imposes huge extra costs of operation and construction so that instead of a typical cost for such a facility like 15 million, which they did in Torrance, this is supposed to cost 60 million more and give us a site that will be less functional, less life, less everything. And it's all due, apparently, to a concept that tidelands funds are to be used and need be used only for luxuries and extras and nostalgia and never mind the people who are now going to depend on those funds to be spent for defense against sea level rise, not for the fancy of a swimming pool, which will be in the midst of a flooded neighborhood. But for the defense of those neighborhoods themselves. Can I go? Okay. Hi. It's nice to see some of you again. Some of you I have met. Some of you I have not. I also have been coming here for eight years and five months. I'm very passionate about this project, so I want to thank Mayor Garcia, Councilwoman Susie Price and all the rest of you. My name is Debbie McCormick Allen, the owner and head coach of the McCormick Diving Team in Long Beach. I'm also on the board of the Aquatic Capital of America Foundation and a member of the Long Beach Century Club. In 2019, you honored our team in these chambers for celebrating 51 years of excellence. Now it's 53. Okay. We are beyond anxious for you to start digging that hole. I realize there have been many delays due to frivolous lawsuits. Personally, I feel. That those losing lawsuits should pay all those costs, since every delay costs the city thousands of dollars more. Once this pool is built, it will bring a lot of excitement for the public and all water sport enthusiasts, especially with the citywide access and multiple pools for all the fun aquatic activities. While the majority of time this facility will serve the community, the few times that it is used for major events will attract millions of dollars in tourism. Every delay in starting this project is more time that Long Beach clubs like mine has to spend traveling to different cities to rent their facilities. With the Olympics coming up, there will be a lot of kids dreaming of becoming an Olympian one day. One of my former students started at the old Belmont Pool and just won the Olympic trials. So I want you to cheer for Brandon Lucero. I just know that there's a lot of kids that might want to be an Olympian one day. Okay. Okay. Well, cheers for Brandon. Thank you so much. Jessica Payne and a Christensen and Cantrell and Coral asleep. Please line up. Hi. Thank you. Mayor Garcia Garcia. Thank you. Councilmember Price. Thank you for the whole council for actually getting through this project. My children were deeply involved with the Belmont Pool for the last 12 and a half years of its existence. They went to major colleges because of their experiences swimming and diving there, and it was invaluable. For five years we actually lived in Sydney, Australia and used that Olympic pool. But the community use of that pool was what I want to bring up to you. It was amazing with the swim, the diving, the water polo, but also all of the community features that we are adding to this pool that brought people there. And yes, it was closed maybe three times a year, mostly for TV and film use, not for competitive use. They could keep it open for the community and run major competitions. It was an amazing thing and every time I went there I thought about, why couldn't our Long Beach pool be more like this? Now it's going to be, and I thank you. I'm very sad, though, that the next year it'll be at least 12 and a half years since it closed before we have another pool. Thank you for keeping to work on this. Thank you very. Much. And cheer for Brandon. Thank you. Next speaker. Yeah. Anna Christensen from the Long Beach Area Peace Network. We still maintain that this is a let's see, what did we call it? Well, white privilege. It's a castle to white privilege. It's in the whitest, wealthiest corner of town. Black Lives Matter apparently didn't really sink in. I guess the Coastal Commission is going to expect you to buy a bus and throw a few dollars for some free lessons. That's about it. But it's not. It's not going to do what? The other thing we ask you to do is Long Beach. I'm sorry. Peace Network is Bill pulls. Bill pulls in everybody's council district costs about 2 million bucks a pop. It's not a lot. Excuse that. Oh, we don't have any money. Okay, well, let me just say this. You just spent two and a half million dollars to maintain the Queen Mary for six months. 23 $2,000,300 for artificial turf in Eldorado Park, and $1,000,700 to rehabilitate a duck pond. You know, 200 million for the cops and 94 million for the fire department. We can find $2 million. It's getting hot. It's getting hot in the night. It's hot in the first. Don't believe that every elder is going to make it down to the Belmont pool. This is delusional. And my my final remark is be delusional on your own dime. We got to face reality. The difference. And Cantrell speaking for Karp and the Sierra Club lo Cerritos, Wetlands, Land Trust. You are being asked to approve the finding that the project is exempt from sequel. Even if the LCP exemption applies, it does not apply to the zoning. So code changes or the general plan amendment that are necessary for the project. As portions of this project are not exempt from sequel, the entire project is not exempt from sequel. In fact, a new EIA is needed to study the effects of removing the roof and that the effects of removing the roof will have on noise, light and energy use. Will blowing sand clog the filtering system and the moveable floor? Will the disabled and elderly be able to use an outside pool? There has been no traffic study since Ocean Boulevard was calmed. There is no plan for a special event. Parking. Alternative locations have changed because the Jehovah Witnesses and the Queen Mary Land are no longer being under lease. Lastly, by moving the pool north and taking a public park and public right of way, there is not only loss of parking, nesting trees and disabled sidewalks, there is a violation of the city ordinance 905 which states parks will not be alienated unless replaced with a 2 to 1 ratio. Thank you so much. Politically. Marlene Alvarado and Wise. Sam Simmons, please line up. Carelessly here. The first point I'd like to make is a judge pointed out to us not long ago that imprudent spending is not illegal. The second point is that there is no objection from carp on building an exotic swimming facility that will allow the competitive swimmers and divers to train. The objection is to the location. Looking at what the the Coastal Commission put together, where they had nine items and 24 pages of what needs to be accomplished before they can approve the CDP. You see words that you would not see in building a normal pool on more stable ground. You see words like plinth, that's a sea wall. You see a ten foot walkway. Foundations to account for high ground groundwater levels to accommodate elevated liquefaction potential associated with high water levels, beach fill programs, plans for how each foundation element will be removed. So before we've even built it, we have to have a plan to remove it because it's in the path of sea level rise. The tidal and ferns will be gobbled up by this asset. There was a list of hundreds of competing priorities for those funds, and that list seems to have been discontinued. But reconstruction on the Belmont Pier is surely on that list. Every day replacement of lifeguard stations needs to be paid for. Imprudence. Is all. Right. Next speaker, please. Earlier. I'm actually with Hungarian Peace Network and Democratic Socialists of America. This pool is really not a very wise thing to do. It is going to be affected by sea level rise. And you know how we humans thinks we we cannot beat nature. But I mean, look at Florida, a ten story building. How many stories fell down because of the liquefaction? I think this is not wise at all. And another thing, too, is I don't think too many kids in Councilman Rich Rex Richardson's area or probably Austin's area would be able to go down to the pool and enjoy it because I hope they live too far away. Public transportation is in their grade and maybe they kind of need more police in their own area. Actually, I learned how to swim in Lake Michigan and I didn't need a pool. That's what I have to say. Expedia points. Good evening, counsel. My name is Hank Wise. It's nice to be in front of you again. I was here a little while ago when I accepted an award from you guys for my Catalina swim efforts, which have done seven of them. And thank you for that award. I'd like to just. I'm basically here to celebrate. Okay. When? When the pool passed the Coastal Commission with all your hard work, especially mystery ranks. I was just like I was over the moon and I still am over the moon. This pool will be used by the whole city. It'll be used by every age group. It'll be used in so many capacities. And, you know, I'm a head coach of a youth. A youth swim team. A lot of development and all that. And then the adults. I have an adult team as well. But beyond of that, the seniors, the aquatic aerobics, like the water aerobics people, the the the free swim, the late afternoon people that come on in from all over town, park in their cars and just coming on in and getting wet. It just feels good to everybody. So this pool is going to be used widely, widely by everybody in the city. It's going to be a hub. It was a hub before and it'll be a hub again. Thank you so much for passing this pool. I love it and I know so many people that love it, too. Thank you. Thank you. Next figure, please. Hi, everybody. My name's. Sam Simmons. I'm in District four, and I'm here to talk about the pier and about the restoration and rejuvenation of the pier in this area. I'm a swimmer. I'm also an avid ocean swimmer. More importantly, I'm an ESL teacher at a community college, and I'd like to talk about how the pier helps them. And so it's not only my life's work. Yes. So but also in helping students understand the importance of our oceans and the animals in it. My students come from all over the world, from all kinds of socioeconomic backgrounds and languages. Many have no knowledge of the ocean, and many have never seen the ocean, and they may fear it. We have an assignment where they read a book about a gray whale and an ocean swimmer. And in that assignment, they have to go to the pier and they have to look out at the pier, write what they see , identify the animals of the pier. Many of them, when they come back, say it's a remarkable experience to experience the ocean from a pier. Many are too afraid to swim. So the pier may be the only way that they're able to experience it at all. The comments that I have gotten back from them have been all amazing and that is how they are able to experience the ocean. It is my belief that the pier can help individuals do this. It gives people a stake in helping to improve our oceans. We can't heal what we fear or we don't know. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. I want to say a couple comments and questions over to Councilman Price, too, to wrap us up. Let me let me just also just add that I want to thank the just the staff. Again, I think you guys have we've been talking about this project for for a very long time. And it's one I've I've I've supported from the beginning. I think rebuilding a historical landmark, a place that's so, so much of our community has been involved with since they were many of them kids and the Olympians that have come out of this facility. And just the, I think, Joy, that so many Long Beach families have had as being a part of this community has been really important for us to to be committed to to this project. I also I appreciate obviously, I understand there's been a lot of appeals and there have been a lot of court cases. A lot of this has gone to trial. And on each of those occasions, the the city has been able to move the project forward. And I think that's important to note that what's happened not just in the courts, but also at the Coastal Commission have have reinforced why this project not only matters to our community, but meets the rigorous requirements that especially the Coast Commission puts on projects of this magnitude. And I will share, and I think most folks know this the Coastal Commission staff and the commission, having been a former Coastal Commissioner myself, put these projects through an incredibly rigorous process. And so I feel confident that the Coastal Commission has blessed this project and they have an incredible team of of climate scientists and environmental attorneys and staff that are committed to this work and to the the Coast Commission itself is a body that has also done great work. And so I appreciate all of the Coastal Commission's work in getting us to this point. I think we all would have loved for this to have gone by a lot faster, but grateful that we're here at this moment. And obviously to, you know, to Lucy and Debbie and Hank and everyone that's just been involved in the process. I just want to thank you for guiding the process as well, because it has been, I know, a labor of love for all of you. And it's and it matters to Long Beach. And I think we made a commitment. I certainly did. Councilman Price certainly did. And her predecessor before her to get this project completed. And that's what we're going to do. I also want to just note that I have met personally kids from across the city that are excited to see the pool reopen and kids that that are now no longer kids that use the pool and are off doing other great things, you know, in college or beyond. And their experience and connection to to the to that facility is really powerful. And and, you know, it means a lot to so many people. So I'm glad that we're finally here. I look forward to seeing shovels in the ground and getting this project started. And I'm grateful to the courts, the Coastal Commission and the city staff for every step of the way doing the right thing and moving this project forward. In addition to that. I also want to just add that one thing that I think is also important is that you're working also on inequity plan and that equity plan. And I understand that this is something that is work being worked on with the Coastal Commission and will, I believe go to the Coastal Commission at some point. And so I think that that's something that I think is is absolutely important. And I'm really I'm really grateful and glad that we're moving forward on that plan as well to ensure that the pool is a political assessable to everyone. Because I can tell you right now that the advocates and those that that have been meeting or with me or talking to me about the pool, they want the pool to be accessible to everybody. That is, I know our goal behind the dais and it's certainly the goal of Debbie's and Lucy's and everyone else in the community is for it to be something for for the entire city. So I strongly support this project and I just want to personally, again, thank Councilman Price for being such a great steward of and leader of getting us to this point as well. And we'll continue to get it across the finish line. Councilman Price. And to add to that, Mr. Mayor, thank you. I'm so we do have some permanent pools in the city of Long Beach. They're not in the third district. Maybe city staff can tell us where are the permanent pools in the city of Long Beach. So we have two other pools. We have three pools total. We have the Belmont pool. We have a martin Luther King pool, which is in the sixth District. And we have Silverado Pool, which is in the seventh District. We also have access to some of the community pools. I'm sorry, the school district pools. And we do some joint partnerships with them. And Cabrillo is another one. In fact, almost every pool I can think of that we have access to where we've done is in an area that is that is an equity area. That is an area that is related to communities that need access to facilities. And so the Belmont Pool is the largest. It's a regional pool and it serves the entire region, and it's been located there ever since the voters approved it back in the sixties. So thank you, Mr. Modica and I, I'm super excited about the equity piece. We just started the equity rowing program in the third district. Last weekend was our first weekend. And you know, without going, I don't want to violate any of the privacy of the kids, but these are kids who would never have access to a program like rowing because it's so expensive and cost prohibitive. And they're participating in this and this program. And we had a difficult time recruiting because some of the kids don't know how to swim and they needed to have some basic swim lessons to sign up for this equity program. And so we want to make sure that that access is there for everyone. And I think the Coastal Commission wanted that as well and I'm super excited about that piece. I will say I was I was moved by the comments of the Coastal Commission, I think the title as president or maybe chair, I don't know his exact title and I don't have his words written down. But they hear from all communities all over the state of California. And at the end of the Belmont Pool comment, he made an observation that I thought was pretty profound and I got to give it to Anna Christiansen's been really the only one that's talked about this equity issue from day one. But in the beginning, the conversation was, let's not build this pool blocks the views. The building is too high. It should be in other parts of the city. And the Coastal Commission president made a comment about it's interesting when you have residents from the community that is the proposed project site saying we don't want those people here, that the whole idea of equity and integration is bringing people together in different communities. And that's a way of exclusion to say let's keep the let's keep everyone separated so that we're not integrating. He he said it a lot more articulately than I did, but I thought it was a very. Hey, hey, guys, please, please, will. Let's actually we're not going to have the outburst right now. So thank you very much, Councilwoman Price, continue. I thought that that was a very profound statement that he made because the idea of bringing people from throughout the region to different neighborhoods. Actually, I know that's not that's not yet. Mr. Christiansen. Ms.. Christiansen there is time. There's time to talk. I miss Gretchen. There's time there's time for you to do comment. Now. Councilman Price, as a former councilman PRICE. Thank you. Okay. Mr.. Ms.. Christiansen, thank you very much. Yep. Thank you very much, ma'am. Ma'am, you cannot you cannot continue to do that. We've got to continue the meeting. Councilman Price. So thank you. So one of the things that I appreciated was the comment of if you build facilities throughout the city, you get people from throughout the city going throughout the city. Right now we have people going to Cabrillo or MLK or Silverado to use our free rec classes, and that will be the case in Belmont Pool as well. And as Councilman Saranga said at the Coastal Commission, if you build it, they will come. And I thought that was a really great statement, that that's a way for us to get people to get on the ocean and to access the ocean. And I thought that was a profound statement that someone else made that it was important to highlight. So thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Ranga. ex-Mayor. And since there's quite a considerable, considerable discussion about the Coastal Commission, a board that I sit on, I just want to give you a little bit of a historical perspective that when this item first came to the City Council to review it, to develop the plan and send it out, I didn't vote for it because I didn't see an equity component to it. And it was. Pass obviously in that wet to the coach commission. And I, I really try to emphasize to staff that we needed an equity element to it to ensure that kids from all over the city and the region, for that matter, had access to the pool. That after all, the coach commission is about access. And that's what we that's what we want to encourage, want to pursue. So when it got to the Coast Commission, they heard out loud what what it was supposed to address. And it did. And when it came to the coach commission and I had my fact, several coach commissioners make that very same point that we needed to make sure that that, of course, commission permit in order for a city to get it, that it would include an element of equity to ensure that kids and people from all over the region, regardless of their background, had access to the pool. And a statement that I made was, you know, because people were also talking about why are you building it here in the third district and one of the most highest rent districts in the city? Why don't you build it somewhere else? More people can more access like all that's segregation. Winnie, what's the matter with integrating the third district? That's where we would need to do is we need to integrate the third district by having people come to where no others can. Guys, I. Please, can. We. You might find that funny. You may find it hilarious. You might think it's a it's a it's a non sequitur. But, you know, think about it, think about it. Think about having people come to the beach. Where they haven't been able to come before because they're excluded, because they don't come to me, to our area, because we have a pool here. Build your own pools over there and you stay there. That's not what this is about. This is about equity, is about fairness, is about everybody having access to a pool in Long Beach. Now, if you're and you disagree with that, then you know what? You have an issue with equity. With equity. So anyway, just to just to put this out. Thank you. Actually actually hold on 1/2. Councilman Ranga, you have the floor if you want to finish up. Just to close this out. A passed the coast commission unanimously. Well, actually ten. What? And it was it was a good project. They thought it was everything that what that the commission has recommended to be included is here now and it's going forward and it's and it's going to be reviewed again by the Coastal Commission. So thank you very much for this opportunity to speak. Thank you, Councilmember and then Vice Mayor Richardson, and then we'll go to a vote. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to chime in. And so a couple of things. So, one, we have certain assets in the city that are citywide assets. Our convention center, our civic center, our airport, our port, the Belmont Pool is designed to be a citywide asset. Now, that does not mean that we cannot also invest in community pools. I tend to agree. I think there's value both ways. I think the conversations on integration said are great. My mother integrated schools 50 years ago when she was in second grade. Those are you know, those are powerful, powerful statements. I don't want to oversell it, but I think there is something to be said about. There's a pool at King. There's a pool at Belmont. There's a pool. Let me just. Let me just finish my statement. There's a pool there, King. There's a pool on the West Side. There needs to be a pool in North Long Beach. We have access, limited access to a pool of Jordan, limited access. But there is no city municipal pool in 925, which has more children than any other zip code in the city. So I would say yes on my pool. Yes. I'm investing in pools in North and central in West Long Beach. There are pools in central west. There needs to be a pool in north. And the facilities in central west need to be improved. So I would hope that in this this obviously keeps on coming up. So I hope the staff is listening that there you don't have to I mean, you've heard enough. We need to be making these investments. Next time there's a big surplus in the state, let's see some proposals about expanding pools into these other other areas of town. So those are those are some of the some of my thoughts here. Thank you. Thank you. With that members, please go to cast your votes. Vice Mayor Richardson. Motion carries. Unanimously. Thank you. Next item is item number 19.