Redondo Beach Gets Together to Decide How a Pier Should Appear

Tile-roofed Mediterranean!

Cape Cod quaint!

More fishing!

A less fishy smell!

Having finally decided to rebuild their landmark, storm-shattered pier, the residents of Redondo Beach gathered this week for the first of three meetings to discuss how it should be rebuilt.

Councilwoman Barbara Doerr expressed disappointment that only 60 people showed up for Thursday’s well-advertised public meeting, most of them activists and business people whose opinions are well-known.

But Torrance architect Edward Carson Beall, who has been retained to design the pier--which will cost between $6 million and $7 million--said the meeting gave him plenty of ideas to work with. He expects to return in six to eight weeks with variations of two basic layouts. They will be based on the horseshoe-shaped structure that was decimated by fire and storms two years ago.

“Somebody said ‘Make it the statement of your career.’ Well, why shouldn’t I?” Beall said. “I’d like to make this thing part of Redondo again. It’s been sort of divorced for so long.”

Nearly destroyed in 1988, the 60-year-old pier is a shadow of its former bustling self, and the community has argued whether Redondo Beach should bother to rebuild the landmark at all. Despite vocal opposition from neighboring homeowners who argued that the pier is a magnet for riffraff and vermin, an advisory question on the June ballot showed 58% of voters wanted the pier rebuilt.

The question now, city officials say, is determining the future look and feel of the pier.

Thrown out by the audience Thursday was a wide array of ideas and demands.

One suggestion, for example, was to rid the pier of the fishy fragrance that in the past hung over the area like a stale fog. Though some have contended that any attraction involving fishing is bound to smell like fish, Beall said the smell could be greatly diminished by refrigerating the garbage and doubling the garbage storage capacity at eateries, which would halve the number of times the trash would have to be hauled past crowds to the dumpsters.

Other suggestions:

* Separate fishing areas from walkways for the general public, possibly by creating a step-down fishing deck.

* Plant shade trees and grass to create at least three miniature “parks” on the pier (an idea that Beall said might also create maintenance headaches).

* Give the pier a theme based on a single architectural style--either Cape Cod, to match the buildings on the pier parking structure, or a more Californian style such as Mission Revival or Mediterranean.

* Get rid of the pier’s unisex bathrooms and build separate facilities for women and men.

* Do something, anything, to keep the pier cleaner this time around.

But a few in the crowd remained convinced that the only way to improve the pier area is to tear the whole thing down.