TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to initiate a downtown visioning process that would include appropriate City Council offices, City departments, Downtown stakeholders, businesses and residents, in an effort to address future development patterns and the mixture of uses including, heights, densities, parking, circulation and appropriate uses to create a vibrant, successful downtown.
DISCUSSION
Recent discussions related to Downtown, Pine Avenue and the Pilot Downtown Entertainment District in addition to applications filed to amend the heights and densities within the Downtown have all raised the question, what is our vision for the future of Downtown?
Previous planning efforts have focused on creating a vibrant and dynamic downtown core that supports the notion of an 18-hour a day dining, retail and entertainment center . At the same time we have encouraged, and in some cases invested in, residential development that seek modifications to existing codes as they relate to building heights and density to attract new urban dwellers who want to reside in a downtown environment .
In order that the City Council, Downtown stakeholders, businesses and residents can ensure the City is "on the right track" in the Downtown's evolution, we are proposing a Downtown Visioning process . To that end, we recommend the process reach out to those who are interested in the current and future direction of the Downtown to participate in a series of input sessions, which will result in recommendations that can be brought to the City Council for consideration and possible implementation . The effort would evaluate and consider two existing documents, Strategy for Development : Greater Downtown Long Beach, California, May, 2000 and the Strategic Action Plan, Downtown Development Task Force, July, 2000 with the goal of developing a clear, concise and accessible document reflecting the future vision for downtown. The results of this effort would be reviewed by the Plannin...
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