Plans for Long Beach City College’s affordable housing complex, revealed at a community outreach meeting, left residents concerned about neighborhood parking availability given the proposal included 19 parking spaces for the 22-unit complex.
The meeting was held at the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library, where Jeff Connell, LBCC’s associate vice president of facilities and operations, presented the plans to local community members.
The presentations showed the proposed complex next to the library at Atlantic Avenue and 59th Street with two buildings, one for classrooms and one for the apartments with a courtyard between the two.
Representatives said plans remain unfinished and that the complex is intended to house student parents and their families primarily, offering a mix of studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.
Connell acknowledged that the 19 enclosed ground-level parking spaces would not be sufficient and said discussions were ongoing with one possible solution being students attending classes using spaces available at the neighboring library.
One of the issues some residents had with the project was the lack of information given to them prior to the meeting.
LBCCD’s Board of Trustees President, Uduak-Joe Ntuk, cited over a dozen campus meetings including workshops, feasibility meetings and board meetings that were posted online and available to the public, but neighbors claimed they received no direct invitations.
Ntuk stated the district had worked for 18 months with both City Council offices and the city manager, assuring residents this was only the beginning of many community meetings to come.
Tina Tatum, who attended the meeting to learn about housing eligibility requirements for her daughter, stated that her daughter does not own a vehicle and questioned the complex’s distance from the Liberal Arts Campus.
Officials said they have already begun brainstorming how to reduce transportation barriers for students by looking into routing the existing shuttles to the complex and working with Long Beach Transit to explore solutions.
The presentation lists site preparation and utility work beginning December 2027, building construction starting May 2028 with the complex expected to be completed by November 2029.
LBCC held a groundbreaking ceremony for the separate Liberal Arts Campus housing project on Thursday, Oct 8.
