"We're moving from planning to building and putting shovels in the ground," Mayor Rex Richardson said the day the Long Beach City Council approved a construction contract for the Belmont Beach & Aquatics Center. That was January 20, 2026. If you live in Belmont Shore, you've probably already noticed the fencing, the equipment staging, and the sign marking the future site at Termino Avenue and Olympic Plaza.
What you may not have connected yet is the other change tied to the same project: the free parking around Alamitos Bay Marina that residents and boaters have used for years is on track to disappear. Not because of a separate city initiative, but because it's part of how the pool itself gets paid for. Here's what's actually happening on the ground this summer, and what the financing plan means for the next time you look for a parking spot near the marina.
A Site With Two Timelines
The original Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool opened in 1968 and hosted Olympic Swimming Trials in both 1968 and 1976, along with NCAA Championships in 1974 and 1978. It was demolished in 2014 after a seismic study forced its closure the year before, and a temporary facility, sometimes described as high-school caliber, has stood in its place ever since.
The replacement has been promised, redesigned, and delayed for what officials now describe as a 13-year wait. Early renderings from 2016 showed a $119 million domed natatorium surrounded by a futuristic coastal campus. That vision got scaled back repeatedly over the following years as rising construction costs, declining oil revenues, environmental legal challenges, and mandates from the California Coastal Commission forced one redesign after another. Proposed budgets over that stretch ranged from $60 million to $145 million. As recently as May 2025, construction bids for one version of the project came in around $60 million each and were rejected as over budget.
What's Actually Happening On Site Right Now
The plan that finally moved forward carries a total project budget of $105.1 million. The City Council approved it in January 2026, and crews have been on-site since spring. Here's the sequence, in the order it happened:
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Jan. 20, 2026 | City Council approves construction contract with Bernards Bros., Inc. in an 8-0 vote |
| April 2026 | Crews begin site work, starting with demolition of the adjacent kiddie pool |
| May 30, 2026 | Official groundbreaking ceremony at Termino Avenue and Olympic Plaza |
| June 2026 | Clearing and grubbing, pavement demolition, stormwater management installation, and abatement of lead ceramic tiles in the small inground pool |
| June–July 2026 | Installation of Vibro-Stone Columns to stabilize soil ahead of foundation work |
The target is spring 2028, timed to be ready months before the LA28 Olympic Games arrive in the region.
The Design Trade Divers Are Still Upset About
The finished facility will include a 50-meter competition pool with a movable bulkhead and four springboards, plus a separate recreational and instructional pool with zero-depth entry and spray features, a multi-use building with locker rooms and offices, and bleacher seating for 544 spectators.
What it will not have is a diving platform. Long Beach-based McCormick Divers, one of the country's top diving clubs, pushed to keep platforms in the final design, but cost cuts took them out. "The new city council, recreation department and Mayor didn't seem to care about diving," Debby McCormick said after the vote. Youth aquatics groups including Tony Azevedo's 908 Water Polo Club spoke in favor of the construction contract at the same meeting, so the reaction inside the local swim community has been mixed rather than uniformly celebratory.
Where the $105 Million Actually Comes From
Before a single shovel went into the ground, the project had already spent $23.2 million on designs, redesigns, studies, and permitting work across a dozen consultants. Of the remaining $105.1 million budget, roughly $77 million comes from the city's Tidelands Fund, a pool of oil-revenue money reserved under state law for coastal-area improvements. That leaves a gap of about $28 million, which the city plans to close through sponsorship revenue, smaller grants, and a $24.5 million bond.
That bond is the part that touches daily life in Belmont Shore most directly.
The Parking Change Coming to the Marina
To repay the $24.5 million bond, the city intends to start charging for parking at 1,800 spaces around Alamitos Bay Marina that are currently free. The proposed rate is $2 per hour, and city projections estimate that if just a fifth of those spaces are occupied at any given time, the meters would generate around $3 million a year.
This isn't a new idea. The city studied a similar parking charge in 2022, and the Long Beach Marine Advisory Commission rejected it that year over concerns it would unfairly tax the people who already use the waterfront. This time the proposal is tied directly to pool financing, which changes the political calculus, but it still needs a permit from the California Coastal Commission before it can take effect, and the formal bond issuance itself requires a separate council vote.
That process hasn't been smooth. Neighborhood groups and members of the Long Beach Marine Advisory Commission have said they were promised a public meeting on the parking plan and are still waiting. "Despite repeated requests, we've only been told we might get an update in the summer," Joan Palango, executive vice president of the Long Beach Marina Boat Owners Association, said in May. If you park near the marina regularly, this is the piece worth tracking over the next few months, since the meter rollout is not yet locked in even though construction is well underway.
Not an Olympic Venue, Just an Olympic Deadline
It's worth being precise about what the 2028 Games actually mean for this project. The pool itself won't host a specific Olympic event. The completion date is simply set ahead of the Games so the city has a finished facility instead of a construction zone during that period. Nearby waters will carry the Olympic connection: open-water swimming, sailing, and rowing competitions are planned in the surrounding area, separate from the Belmont Pool site itself. If you've seen the new facility described as an Olympic venue, that's a shorthand worth correcting.
What This Means for the Rest of 2026
The temporary Belmont Plaza Pool is expected to stay open at least through the construction period, so current programming, lap swim, and lessons should continue uninterrupted for now. Once the new facility opens, the city will negotiate separately with the Coastal Commission over whether to close the temporary pool. Expect ongoing site activity around Termino Avenue and Olympic Plaza through 2028, and expect the parking conversation to resurface as the bond issuance and Coastal Commission permit move through their remaining approvals.
There's also a broader equity debate playing out alongside this project. Critics have argued a facility of this scale would serve underserved communities better in Long Beach's inland neighborhoods rather than another beachfront amenity. Richardson has pointed to early talks about a future pool at Ramona Park in North Long Beach as the city's next major infrastructure step, though that project is not yet funded or scheduled.
For now, the headline for Belmont Shore residents isn't really "the pool is finally happening." It's that the pool's price tag reaches past the construction fence and into the parking lot you've been using for free, and that piece of the story is still being written.
If you're weighing what any of this means for your own plans in Belmont Shore, whether that's timing a sale around the neighborhood's next chapter or just understanding how projects like this shape long-term property values, Cynthia Voss & Nathan Walter track this kind of local change closely. Request a Free Home Valuation to start a conversation about where your home stands today.
