Port of Long Beach Land Use Study

Ports are complex, highly interconnected places. All the various terminals, support yards, and transportation elements depend on each other directly and indirectly. The Port of Long Beach is planning for its future with a broad, comprehensive, long-term land use study. The port wants to use a flexible land use model that can assess capacity and benefits and adapt to shifting commercial demands, while simultaneously evaluating wider port and regional goods movement impacts such as traffic congestion and air emissions. The port needs a model that allows their planning staff to consider multiple land use scenarios that reflect evolving commercial and development paradigms. An integrated land use model was developed for the port that combines land planning, capacity, and impact analyses into one platform, encompassing all port terminals and activities. This paper presents how the model met all port requirements and helped the port to characterize potential land use scenarios for its upcoming master plan update and programmatic environmental permit process.