The Belmont Pool Is Racing a 2028 Clock for Games It Won't Host

The $105 million pool going up at Termino Avenue and Olympic Plaza is scheduled to finish in spring 2028, a few months before the Olympics come to Long Beach. The Games will not hold a single event in it. Long Beach's Olympic water polo, artistic swimming and para swimming are going to a temporary open-air stadium in the Long Beach Convention Center lot. The Long Beach Post reported in May that the Belmont pool "will not be used for a specific event," and that crews expect to finish it by spring 2028.

For Belmont Shore and Belmont Heights, that means a neighborhood pool built on an Olympic schedule. The fence, the excavation and the argument over parking at Alamitos Bay Marina all run on the 2028 deadline. The finished pool will belong to the neighborhood that waited 13 years for it.

Where the 2028 Water Events Actually Land

The confusion makes sense. The name "Long Beach Aquatics Center" shows up on the City's own Games schedule. That venue is the Convention Center lot stadium, though, and the Olympic events that do reach Belmont Shore will be held in the ocean and in Marine Stadium rather than in a pool.

The Olympic Games run July 14–30, 2028, and the Paralympics run Aug. 15–27. Every Belmont Shore item on that list happens offshore or in Marine Stadium. The new pool's design includes a 50-meter pool with spectator bleachers, a mobile bulkhead and four springboards. None of the published 2028 schedules list diving or any other event at the Belmont site.

Why a Pool With No Event Still Runs on the 2028 Clock

The deadline is about timing. The city wants a finished facility on the shoreline before the crowds arrive, and the project has a long history of missing earlier targets. The temporary pool went in in 2013, after the 45-year-old Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool was found to be seismically unsafe. Long Beach Post counts 13 years of delays, redesigns and false starts since then. The first concept was a $119 million domed natatorium. Rising costs, falling oil revenue, environmental issues and Coastal Commission requirements cut it back over the years.

The plan being built today is the version the California Coastal Commission approved unanimously on Oct. 8, 2025. It includes an outdoor 50-meter competition pool, an outdoor combined instructional and recreational pool, an entry building and a separate support building. The approved project keeps Olympic Plaza open as a public right-of-way and does not remove any street parking. The Post also lists a shallow therapy and learning pool, spray zones, and a multi-use building with lockers, offices and changing rooms.

The cost estimate rose with each step. The January 2026 staff report put the total at $105.1 million, compared with the $74 million to $78 million estimate tied to the 2023 revised design, and blamed most of the increase on market and labor costs. On Jan. 20, 2026, the City Council voted 8–0 to give the construction contract to Bernards Bros., with a not-to-exceed amount of $59,823,170. About $77 million of the budget comes from the city's Tidelands Fund, which depends on oil revenue. Before the ceremonial groundbreaking, $23.2 million had already been spent, mostly on design, redesign, studies and permitting.

At the May 30 groundbreaking, Mayor Rex Richardson said:

"Breaking ground on the Belmont Plaza Pool marks a historic step forward in delivering a facility that reflects the pride, history and future of Long Beach."

Fall 2026 Is Happening Below the Fence Line

Anyone walking past the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier parking lot this fall can see that nothing is going up yet. That's expected. A pool on the beach needs firm ground under it first, and the City's monthly project log shows the crews have spent the whole season below grade.

1. May: Construction fencing, project trailers, temporary power and a dewatering system went in around the perimeter.
2. June and July: Bernards Bros. cleared the site, broke up pavement, set up stormwater controls and removed lead ceramic tile from the small in-ground pool. Crews then drilled a grid of vibro-stone columns, swapping weak soil for stone down to 21 feet.
3. August: The ground stabilization under the building areas was finished, so heavy equipment could move around the site. Demolition crews then found transite pipe under the old small pools that site investigations couldn't reach, and the rest of the demolition had to wait for new state disposal tracking numbers.
4. Late September: The state issued a permanent ID on Sept. 22. Crews then removed the transite pipe and backfilled the small-pool area. The continuous flight auger piles went in from mid- to late September, with Native American, archaeological and paleontological monitors on site.
5. October: Dewatering and shoring equipment is scheduled to go in this month. As of the September update, crews were still trenching for the dewatering discharge line along the west fence.
6. Late November: Southern California Edison is projected to energize the site, using temporary wooden power poles the contractor has already put up.

Some of the street work nearby isn't part of the pool contract. In August, Long Beach Utilities started replacing gas mains and service lines on Olympic Plaza Drive and nearby streets. The log says that work falls outside the project limits, though part of it supports the new pool. You can sign up for the City's Belmont Pool updates to get these monthly reports as they come out.

The 2013 Pool Keeps Its Fall Schedule

The construction hasn't changed daily routines next door. The temporary outdoor pool stays open through the whole build. Afterward, the City and the Coastal Commission will decide whether it closes.

The Parks, Recreation and Marine page for the Belmont Outdoor Temporary Pool says it is running normal hours and programs, closing only in specific kinds of bad weather. The posted schedule includes lap swim on weekdays and Saturdays, recreation swims, and weekday deep- and shallow-water exercise. The fall 2026 class listing offers water-exercise sessions and swim lessons, including a Saturday session from Oct. 17 to Dec. 5.

So for at least the next year and a half, Belmont Shore has a working pool next to a construction site for its replacement. Lap swimmers this winter will be swimming within sight of the dewatering pumps.

The Decision Still Being Counted at Alamitos Bay Marina

The part of this project most likely to change a local errand is a few blocks away at the marina. In January, the City proposed charging for about 1,800 parking spaces around Alamitos Bay Marina that are free now. At $2 an hour, if at least a fifth of those spaces were filled at any given time, the meters would bring in $3 million a year. The money was tied to a $24.5 million bond meant to cover part of the pool's funding gap. The idea has come up before. The Marine Advisory Commission turned down paid parking at the marina in 2022.

The schedule has slipped. In May, Public Works said a parking study would run from shortly after Memorial Day through the summer, with community meetings in late summer. A proposed parking management program would then go to the Coastal Commission, which typically takes about 47 days to act on a permit once it's filed, depending on its workload. At the time, the Post reported that the bond plan still needed City Council approval.

At the Marine Advisory Commission Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 8, 2026, a speaker gave this update, according to the automated transcript:

"The parking study's still underway… Once that study is complete, we will bring Public Works representatives… to detail the parking management plan. Everything's still on the table."

According to the same transcript, fall parking counts are being taken now, and a presentation on a plan covering marina parking between Basins 1 and 3 and beyond is expected "in the coming months." The speaker described the revenue differently from the January plan. In that account, the money set aside for the Belmont pool would help pay operating costs, such as lifeguards, after the pool opens rather than repay the bond. The record so far doesn't resolve that difference. We found no Council vote on the debt or completed bond sale after May.

As of Oct. 10, 2026, the marina spaces are still free, the parking study is still counting cars, and the pool site is still being prepared below ground for a spring 2028 finish.

If you own a home near Olympic Plaza or Alamitos Bay and want to know how the build and the pending parking plan could matter if you sell, The Elmer Team follows these neighborhood projects closely. Get your instant home valuation, and we'll walk you through what's known so far.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.