Panel Of Interdisciplinary Experts To Advise Long Beach As Part Of Yearlong Fellowship Program

The Rose Center for Public Leadership, jointly operated by the National League of Cities (NLC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), is working this week with Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia to help the City, its partners and stakeholders transition Boeing's closing C-17 military airplane manufacturing facility back into productive use, and develop new economic development, industry attraction, job retention and workforce training strategies that align with the mayor's vision of Long Beach becoming a hub for emerging technology and innovation.

"Repurposing the Boeing site is a priority for the City and the continued development of Douglas Park as a business and technology center," said Mayor Garcia. "We are very grateful to the Rose Center, the National League of Cities, and the Urban Land Institute for their outstanding support of this transition."

Boeing Corporation is closing its manufacturing facility for the C-17 Globemaster III, a large transport military airplane. During its peak, the C-17 facility employed up to 5,000 people, but since 2010 Boeing has steadily downsized the C-17 workforce. The company is committed to a long-term presence in Long Beach because of its historical investment in the city and will continue to maintain a sizeable workforce on other projects. The City is seeking a development strategy for the site to be acquired, developed or planned to further the City's vision of becoming a hub for emerging technology and innovation uses, with a focus on job retention and creation. The study area is about 130 acres including the Boeing-owned C-17 site, portions of the Long Beach airport leased/ used by Boeing and parcels around Cherry Avenue.

"No city can take a back seat to its economic future," said Rose Center Director Jess Zimbabwe. "Mayor Garcia and the City of Long Beach recognize the economic importance of this study area, and we're looking forward to helping them define a vision for it."

The Rose Center's mission is to encourage and support excellence in land use decision making by providing public officials with access to information, best practices, peer networks, and other resources to foster creative, efficient, practical, and sustainable land use policies. Each year, the center's Daniel Rose Fellowship program invites the mayors of four large U.S. cities to select a team with land use decision-making authority to receive technical assistance on a local land use challenge. This year's fellowship class is from the cities of Birmingham, Ala.; Denver; Long Beach, Calif. and Rochester, N.Y.

"The Long Beach project to repurpose a manufacturing plant into a center of innovation and technology is a great example of ways that cities can support job creation and long-term economic vitality in their communities," said Clarence E. Anthony, CEO and executive director of the National League of Cities (NLC).

"The Rose Center has an excellent track record of helping cities reinvent themselves to be more vibrant, livable and successful," said ULI Global Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. "We're excited about the Center's land use challenge in Long Beach, and we look forward to the panel's recommendations on how this site can be repurposed for future uses related to technology and the innovation economy."

Mayor Garcia's team includes Rose Fellows Deputy City Manager Arturo Sanchez; City Engineer Sean Crumby; and Linda Tatum, Manager of the Department of Development Service's Planning Bureau; who are assisted by senior planner Carrie Tai, also in the Planning Bureau. In addition to technical assistance on their city's land use challenge, the fellowship program provides participants with leadership training and professional development opportunities from NLC's and ULI's respective programming and networks of public- and private-sector members.

The panel will be briefed by Mayor Garcia and his team, tour the study area and meet with community, business and civic leaders and other stakeholders. Drawing upon their professional expertise and experience, the panelists will apply the information gathered during the study visit and present recommendations for how the City, its partners and stakeholders can achieve their goals for the area. All of Long Beach's expenses to participate in the program—including the panel's visit—are underwritten by the Rose Center to ensure objectivity during the process.

(Source: National League of Cities news release. Image from file)

FMI: www.nlc.org