Posted on August 18, 2025
The Los Cerritos Wetlands restoration project took another step forward this week, with the California Coastal Commission OKing the effort’s Phase 2, which includes reestablishing an additional 77 acres of tidal wetlands, constructing a perimeter berm and improving public access amenities, among other things.
The project will be carried out on the southern, 86-acre portion of the 154-acre Los Cerritos Wetlands, which was a privately owned oil field for the last six decades, according to the staff report. It is near the city’s border with Orange County and is bounded by Studebaker Road, Pacific Coast Highway, Second Street and Loynes Drive.
A regional effort to restore and conserve the Long Beach wetlands has been ongoing for years, led by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority, a joint-powers agency with representatives from Long Beach and Seal Beach, the Coastal Commission, and the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers and Mountain Conservancy.
The purpose of Phase 2 of the project – which the commission unanimously approved during its Thursday, Aug. 14, meeting – is to restore tidal wetlands and transitional upland habitats by expanding an existing habitat mitigation bank; to provide new public access features, such as pedestrian trails and interpretive elements; and to relocate a picnic area adjacent to a future visitor center.
These restoration efforts are designed to enhance ecological function, improve tidal exchange, reestablish and enhance habitat for special-status plant and animal species, and support long-term climate resilience, said Joe Street, supervisor of the Energy, Ocean Resources and Federal Consistency Division at the Coastal Commission.
This project builds on Phase 1 of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Oil Consolidation and Restoration Project, which the commission OK’d in 2018.
While tidal restoration was previously contemplated for the entire site, Phase 1 included restoration in just the northern area, and eventually led to the creation of the Upper Los Cerritos Wetlands Mitigation Bank in 2023, Street said on Thursday.
Officials gathered earlier this year to celebrate the start of the long-awaited project.
This first phase was anticipated to be a gradual decommissioning of oil infrastructure over a 20-year period, according to the staff report.
“The applicants have since accelerated decommissioning,” Street said, “and now propose to restore the wetlands across the full site, expand the mitigation bank and increase public access many years ahead of schedule.”
The main components of Phase 2, meanwhile, include constructing new tidal channels to reconnect both the southern and northern portions of the site to full tidal exchange, grading in targeted areas, and planting to reestablish an additional 77 acres of tidal wetlands, as well as transitional and upland habitats, according to the staff report.
It also includes building a perimeter berm along the southern and western margins of the project area to protect adjacent lands from flooding and limit impacts to the wetlands. The phase also includes post-construction planting, irrigation, maintenance and adaptive management for the restored habitat areas to improve public access.
The project would raise the elevation and reconfigure the visitor center complex, and realign a proposed pedestrian trail and picnic area. It would also preserve the Bixby Discovery Well No. 2 as a historic feature, with interpretive signage and a pedestrian trail connecting to the visitor center.
This step of the project will also help resolve a historic violation — which occurred under prior ownership in 2007 — that disturbed an area of about 3,000 square feet.
The Coastal Commission on Thursday unanimously approved the project’s coastal development permit application and authorized the executive director to become a signatory to the amended Upper Los Cerritos Mitigation Bank Enabling Instrument, with several special conditions that are intended to help reduce negatove impacts to coastal resources during the renovations.
Some of those special conditions include securing all other necessary agency approvals prior to beginning construction; addressing protection of sensitive habitat, biological resources and water quality; requiring the submittal of a project-specific Oil Spill Prevention and Response Plan; and addressing the outstanding violation on the property by requiring a Supplemental Wetlands Restoration Plan for Bioswales.
“I am just thrilled that this has been accelerated and is moving forward,” commission Vice Chair Caryl Hart said. “At this particular time in history, expansion and restoration of wetlands is so critically important.”
By mid-2027, officials said, the Southern California community will have access to the newly restored 154 acres of Los Cerritos Wetlands.
