DRYING OUT : As the Surf Settles in Redondo Beach, City Looks to Restoring Harbor

Redondo Beach Council member Kay Horrell was touring severely damaged King Harbor with federal and local officials the day after the worst storm in memory, when she noticed a tiny crab scuttling about a sand-covered parking lot.

Fearing the crustacean would die, she picked it up and headed for the water. She barely flinched when the little creature grasped onto a finger and wouldn’t let go.

But solving all the problems of the harbor, which suffered $17 million in damage, won’t be as easy, nor will the solutions be as clear-cut. And at times, the decisions may be more painful.

A paralyzing combination of an Arctic storm, high tides and winds took hold of King Harbor last Sunday and Monday, nearly destroying a 150-room hotel and three restaurants; badly damaging two piers; sinking many boats, including a 65-footer; injuring 12 people, although none seriously, and damaging 25 businesses and up to 120 boats.

“I feel very sad,” said Horrell, whose district includes the harbor. “You remember all the dinners you’ve had in the restaurants, you remember all the sunsets, all the walks on the pier. It’s a downer. It’s like it was war-ravaged.”

Though the memory of the storm’s devastating fury will never be forgotten, Horrell and other officials, business owners and residents now look to the future and the restoration of King Harbor.

“I see the questions coming now,” said Mayor Barbara J. Doerr, “a lot of questions.”

King Harbor, which weathered financial and ocean storms in the 1960s that had threatened to doom the project, has become the community’s focal point. Its mile-long array of shops, marinas, restaurants, hotels, fishing spots, cafes and an arcade attract 8 million visitors a year.

After completing emergency repairs, city officials agree that the top priority is getting the businesses reopened.

Not only are owners and employees losing money as a result of the closing of most of the businesses, but the city also is out rents, as well as sales, bed and property taxes, and the interest it would have earned on that revenue.

The land and pier at King Harbor are owned by the city but leased to 18 master lessees who operate businesses or sublease the property. Leaseholders own their buildings. Projected city revenue for this fiscal year had been $6.5 million, with expenses of $4.9 million.

Many of the pier and harbor businesses reopened late last week or this weekend--a very few never had to close--and most others expect to reopen by the end of this week.

Only the Portofino Inn, Reuben’s Restaurant, the Blue Moon Saloon and Cattlemens Steak House , all of which were nearly destroyed, will be closed for a long time--just how long, no one will guess. The privately owned sport-fishing pier will be closed about two months, though its businesses will operate from nearby facilities during the pier’s rebuilding.

City Manager Tim Casey said the city will lose $140,000 to $150,000 each month the badly damaged businesses are closed. In addition, other businesses that suffered damage are expected to ask for rent reductions or deferrals.

The closings put about 300 people out of work. The Job Training Partnership Act, operating from an office on the Redondo Beach Pier, is

offering job placement and financial assistance to displaced workers, and South Bay-area businesses have offered to hire some of those people.

City officials believe harbor business will not diminish overall, just be rerouted to other harbor restaurants and hotels.

Proprietors are not as positive, worrying that business might drop after an onslaught of the curious visits the area to look at the damage firsthand.

The city’s next priority is to get financial assistance for itself and the businesses. Some strides have already been made. Gov. George Deukmejian declared a state of emergency in three Southern California counties--after city and county pronouncements--making the city eligible for state assistance.

The governor is expected to ask President Reagan to do the same, making the city and area businesses eligible for federal assistance, although they already qualify for some help from the Small Business Administration, officials said.

Another important step was getting the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state Office of Emergency Services assessors to agree with the city’s estimate of $3 million damage to public property. The initial estimate of $1.6 million by federal and state assessors concerned city officials since the amount of damage determines how much aid for which the city is eligible.

“It seems weird to say we’re glad they found more damage, but at this point, it’s critical,” Casey said.

At most, the city will be able to recoup only 75% of its losses--about $2.25 million--from the federal government, he said. The rest will be paid by the state and city.

City officials do not know yet what federal and state assistance the city and businesses will be eligible for, Casey said. “This is sort of what we’re going to have to learn by doing, unfortunately,” he said.

City officials said it is unlikely that any city services will be cut or taxes raised to help finance restoration, since the harbor enterprise is virtually a business unto itself. Harbor expenses must come from specific funds, and the city’s Harbor Department even reimburses other city funds for its rent and utilities.

“I don’t think it would have any impact on the community as a whole or (on) the tax structure,” Doerr said.

City Atty. Gordon Phillips is examining another financial option for the harbor. He said he will meet with the Redevelopment Agency’s legal consultant Tuesday to discuss putting King Harbor in a redevelopment area. Being in a redevelopment area makes property owners eligible for other types of loans, grants and financial assistance. The usual process for declaring a redevelopment area takes a year or more, but the procedure can be greatly expedited after natural disasters, Phillips said. For example, parts of Whittier were put into redevelopment areas within nine weeks after the Oct. 1 earthquake, he said.

Not Covered by Insurance

Casey said the city is studying funding programs Whittier utilized as well to see if any are applicable to Redondo Beach. The city’s harbor losses are not covered by insurance because, he said, “It’s virtually unobtainable.”

The owner of the Blue Moon Saloon, Don Poryes, said he is arguing with his insurer about whether his $1.5-million loss is covered. An “Out-of-Work Employees and Friends of the Blue Moon Saloon Committee” was established and has started a “Save the Moon Campaign,” he added.

Council member Horrell, a real estate broker, said that, in general, many insurance policies exclude liability for certain natural disasters, and insurers view the harbor area differently than other parts of the city.

“Their liability down there is horrendous,” she said. “Until that breakwater is raised, I don’t think some of those insurance companies will touch the harbor with a 10-foot pole.”

Most officials, business owners and harbor residents say the damage would not have been so devastating had the Army Corps of Engineers improved the three-quarter-mile long main breakwater, as many have requested for at least 10 years.

The northern portion of that breakwater is 22 feet high and the remainder is 14 feet. Army Corps Col. Tadahiko Ono said last week that the agency recently completed a study, conducted over several years, and is expected to recommend that Congress allocate money to raise most of the breakwater to 22 feet and lengthen the 14-foot-high jetty that extends from the pier area.

Ono estimated the project would cost $6 to $10 million, and Mayor Doerr said the city will most likely have to pay up to half the expense under a federal cost-sharing policy.

Ono said that in the aftermath of last week’s storm, the corps will probably revise its recommendations and ask Congress to raise part of the main breakwater to 26 feet and speed construction on the entire project. The corps previously said construction could not be completed until 1992; Ono now says it could be completed before the 1989-90 winter season.

Because Redondo Beach’s breakwater may never be big enough to contain all storms, city officials plan to review construction standards for buildings in that area.

City Atty. Phillips said: “In terms of building standards, I very strongly suggest and urge that the best of building standards be put in place as soon as possible. To me, it’s not even an arguable point.”

City officials are studying specifics, and Phillips said: “Everything is done with past experience--we never had an experience like this. The best information I had is that this was a 50-year storm, maybe worse. I don’t know if you should build to 50-year-storm standards, 100-year standards, or what.”

Gordon McRae, executive vice president and general manager of the Charles Johnston Inc., one of the master leaseholders, said: “It wasn’t our construction, it was (the city’s that failed) . . . . It was the way the harbor was built--the rock revetments and the quay walls.” The rocks the city placed in front of some of the businesses, including the Blue Moon Saloon which is on that leasehold, went through buildings “like a shrapnel situation,” he said.

Building on Higher Ground

Still, he agreed that harbor businesses should do more to protect their buildings from damage, such as constructing on higher ground.

Not everyone agrees that the standards need to be improved.

Corwin Eberting, an architect who said his company designed several structures in the harbor--including Cattlemens Steak House--said: “I think the standards were very good. It’s easy to say after a (severe) storm what should have been done. Again, I think the breakwater should be raised.

“I don’t care what kind of building standards would have been used on the Portofino, it wouldn’t have been able to withstand that storm,” he said, adding that the inn was not one of his projects. Eberting, who has lived in the South Bay since 1935, said that last week the city saw “by far the worst storm ever.”

Although that Arctic storm is over, the city may soon be confronted by political storms as varying groups argue over the harbor’s limited resources and try to use the rebuilding process to shape the harbor’s future. The popular harbor serves a myriad of interests, including boating, fishing, dining, shopping, swimming and sightseeing. Some say the balance is wrong, with too much commercialism and not enough recreation.

Doerr said now is not the time for such debate. “I’m not ready yet to address the political issues,” she said. “I think it’s inappropriate at this time. The only thing I want to see right now is the city doing everything possible to help the people who have been hurt by this.”

Nevertheless, other city officials and some residents are raising questions and offering suggestions about harbor operations that were discussed in the past.

In November, the city staff tried unsuccessfully to persuade the mayor and City Council to seek permission from the Legislature to extend harbor leases to 99 years--a move critics said would essentially amount to a sale of public property.

The state granted the land to the city and limits the time it can lease it. Under state law, leases in the Tidelands area--that west of the mean high tide line--can now run for up to 66 years. The leases east of the high tide line--the Uplands area--now can be granted for up to 50 years.

City staff argued that the city could negotiate more benefits for the public if it had the ability to extend leases.

Another issue that has come up again is whether the harbor is being utilized in the public’s best interest. Now that parts of the harbor will have to be reconstructed, some residents suggested that the council consider putting different uses in those areas.

But Casey said that nearly all of the businesses in King Harbor still have many years left on their leases--some more than 40 years--and these lessees have the right to replace their facilities.

Horrell said: “It would be nice to get as many harbor-related uses as possible, because it is a harbor, after all.” She suggested that any change would have to be negotiated between the city and the lessees. Many boaters have longed for a launching ramp. The only way to get vessels in and out of King Harbor now is by hoists, which cost boaters more to use than a ramp.

Some people want King Harbor--now a harbor essentially closed to transients or day sailors--to have tie-up facilities like those offshore of Santa Catalina Island; that way boaters could stop at the harbor--and patronize the businesses.

Jeff Sandler, who lived aboard his boat in the mooring area of the harbor until the storm hit and damaged many of the moorings, is afraid the repairs will be slow in coming, thereby forcing tenants to seek other facilities and giving the master lessee, Charles Johnston Inc., a the opportunity to set up transient facilities.

McRae, general manager of that leasehold, said the company plans to rebuild everything as it was. Company and city officials, however, are reanalyzing whether the mooring is a safe place for people to live, he said. About 20 of the 80 boats moored in the harbor had people living on them, he said.

“It was never intended for that,” McRae said, adding that five boats in the mooring area sank during the storm. “It’s just extremely lucky people weren’t killed,” he said.

But even if people are no longer allowed to live aboard their boats there, McRae said the moorings, which are already being repaired, will be rented for long-term vessel tie-ups, which is a more profitable business than renting the spaces on a short-term basis.

Last September, the State Lands Commission, prompted by complaints from boaters who live aboard or keep their vessels in King Harbor, began investigating whether city officials have inappropriately spent profits from the harbor and operated the area more for the benefit of commercial interests than the public, commission officials have said.

Many of those who had complained to the state frequently criticize harbor operations and operators at City Council meetings.

Michael Ford, one of the most vocal leaders of the critics, said the boaters will be less combative and try to work more cooperatively with city officials and harbor business managers to restore the area.

And at least for now, compliments are directed where only criticism was thrown in recent months. The only ones being publicly criticized for their work during the storm and its aftermath are the Redondo Beach police, who some say were rude and added to the damage when they kept boat and property owners away from their investments during the storm.

Casey defended the department, saying the police will always protect lives before property and if they were rude under trying circumstances, perhaps they were only responding in kind.

Nevertheless, the city manager said when time permits, city officials and staff will review everything that was done during the crisis.

What seems to make city officials happiest is that no one was killed nor seriously injured and that the harbor is recovering faster than expected.

“They’ve shown amazing stamina in coming up so fast; all of us are amazed,” Horrell said of the business owners. “I don’t see any doom and gloom now that the initial shock is over. They’re planning.”