The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has approved a $1.3 million advance payment to Long Beach but the payback plan needs to be revisited Monday.
The funds will be used to help pay for the first phase of the Colorado Lagoon Restoration Project.
Under the port's original advance payment plan -- approved Monday -- the port would seek mitigation points for the funding. However, if state agencies turned down the port's mitigatio points plan, the city would be required to pay back the funding within a 30-day period.
On Tuesday, however, the council made it clear that it would need a 12-month period to refund the advancement. The commissioners will review that decision Monday at their regular meeting, according to Robert Kanter, director of environmental affairs and planning.
He said he expects the commission approval, although it could reject the new timetable.
"It's a possibility, but not probable," Kanter said.
The port's Colorado Lagoon funding will help pay for the installation of devices to divert polluted runoff away from the lagoon and maintenance of the underground connection to Marine Stadium.
As a coastal habitat restoration project, the lagoon is an expense that the port can fund in exchange for mitigation credits that the port could use later should it need to take habitat in the port area for development projects, according to commission spokesman Art Wong.
The port in February had already agreed to provide $300,000 to help pay for engineering studies for the second phase of the project, which intends to restore tidal flow to the lagoon, Wong added
Joe Segura, a mild-mannered reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, has covered Gotham City, er Long Beach, for 34 years. During his very, very long -- endless -- tenure, he's covered almost every beat, and he was the main writer for BeachWeek, which focused on life and lifestyles of the shoreline communities from downtown Long Beach to the Huntington Beach pier.
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