‘Encinitas has the flower fields, Del Mar has the race track, and Cardiff could have a pier.’ : Proposal for Pier Raises Storm of Opposition

Glen Blackley admits it: He’s partial to piers.

An avid traveler, Blackley has strolled down piers worldwide, from the quaint, Old World pier that adorns the seacoast in Dover, England, to the rather crusty, storm-battered Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach.

He has peered into the churning surf from atop the timber planks of Oceanside’s 40-year-old municipal fishing pier and has fond memories of breezy afternoons spent on the bustling, tourist-clogged Santa Monica Pier.

“Santa Barbara’s my favorite,” Blackley, president of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce, said in a recent interview. “I can see it now. It’s so beautiful with all those lovely boats bobbing around it.”

Given Blackley’s pro-pier sentiments, it comes as little surprise that the local insurance man believes it’s time Cardiff had a pier of its own. A stately, sturdy fishing pier stretching westward from the mouth of San Elijo Lagoon would, in Blackley’s view, be a “splendid landmark” and give this sleepy coastal hamlet a distinctive identity along the North County shoreline.

“Encinitas has the flower fields, Del Mar has the race track, and Cardiff could have a pier,” Blackley said. “A tastefully done pier could do many fine things for the community. It would be great for fishermen and guys like me who are too old to surf and just like to sit out over the water.”

Recently, Blackley and his chamber colleagues floated their pier proposal at an informational meeting. Experts on pier construction, financing and the assorted environmental questions evoked by piers were marched in, and local residents were invited to listen and share their thoughts on the project.

The response was not exactly encouraging. Wearing badges depicting the word PIER with a slash through it, a band of residents affiliated with the Cardiff Town Council descended on the meeting and attacked the proposal, calling it foolhardy and certain to generate traffic and parking woes along the busy shoreline.

“They were definitely anti-pier,” Blackley recalls. “We were sort of stunned.”

Despite the heavy peer pressure, Blackley and fellow pier boosters still believe their idea has merit; they hope to conduct a feasibility study to determine whether a pier could and should be built. But because of the politically charged climate generated by the coming San Dieguito incorporation election, they have agreed to postpone further action until June.

Pier opponents say the project would contribute to the existing congestion and parking shortage at Cardiff State Beach, a popular surfing spot and home to half a dozen restaurants. In addition, some protesters believe a pier would exacerbate erosion problems by interrupting the flow of sand onto area beaches.

“It’s a bum idea, period,” said Bob Bonde, former Cardiff Town Council president and a leader in the incorporation movement. “For one thing, it would obstruct a fine surfing area enjoyed by many residents. And inviting fishermen to spend a day on a pier would make the parking and traffic situation down there intolerable.”

Carol MacManus, secretary of the Cardiff Town Council, called a pier “the wrong facility in the wrong place” and said she did not believe a pier would be a popular addition to the community.

“Everyone I’ve talked to believes a pier would cause nothing but headaches for the town,” MacManus said. “Personally, I just can’t . . . picture a pier down there.”

But according to Blackley and several old timers, Cardiff’s coast did at one time have a pier. Grace Pearson, who moved to Cardiff from El Paso, Tex., in 1923, said the pilings from the old timber pier, about 500 feet south of the lagoon mouth, are still visible during winter low tides.

“There was a pier there, no question about it,” confirmed Henry Cole, 78, a lifelong Cardiff resident. “I don’t recollect when it was built or when it washed out, but it was there back around 1911 or so.”

Indeed, no one in town seems to know who built the historic pier, nor when. However, Paul Rotsheck, an Encinitas contractor and pro-pier person, theorizes that the historic pier may have been associated with a restaurant known as The Breakers that once overlooked the mouth of the lagoon.

In addition to the mystery pier, a second pier was proposed for Cardiff around 1915, but never built, longtime residents said. According to Pearson, a San Diego fellow by the name of J. Frank Cullen, who subdivided much of Cardiff in the early 1900s, intended to turn the tiny beach town into a bustling resort and believed a pier would be a nifty coastal centerpiece.

“J. Frank Cullen was the man who built Cardiff,” Pearson recalled. “He named it after Cardiff, Wales, the mining town, and gave all its streets English names because his wife was from Wales.”

Pearson and other old timers say that Cullen also built a hotel in town and would put up prospective homeowners at his own expense. There is no evidence that Cullen’s pier, however, was ever built.

Pier supporters believe a relatively short, concrete pier would best suit Cardiff today. Concrete piers cost about five times more than timber ones, but hold up better when under attack from wicked ocean currents and winter storms.

While piers are expensive endeavors--Oceanside is spending more than $4 million to reconstruct its 1,600-foot fishing pier--Rotsheck said there are several agencies that assist with funding, among them the state Department of Fish and Game, the California Coastal Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“There is money available,” said Rotsheck, who plans to poll San Dieguito residents to get a sense of the depth of pier support. “But first we have to determine whether Cardiff wants the vitalizing, positive influence I believe a recreational asset like a pier would provide.”