State Says Standoff on Pier Project Has Ended : Malibu: After 14 months of infighting, state officials say they’re ready to get the plans for restoration of the landmark back on track.

More than a year after state officials announced plans to award concession rights at Malibu Pier to a restaurant owner and his partners in exchange for a promise to repair the crumbling structure, no contract has been signed and pier restoration plans are in limbo.

State parks officials disclosed last week that the pier had become involved in a turf battle between state agencies, but they said the conflict had been resolved and that plans for the 86-year-old landmark would soon be back on track.

“I would say it has been an unfortunate series of events, rather than anyone dragging their feet,” said Barbara Gianini, an official with the Concession Program Division of the state parks department, which owns the pier.

However, Gianini warned that it may be several more months before the way is cleared for the pier to be restored.

Some of the pier’s supporters, meanwhile, have criticized the state’s handling of the matter.

“While the pier continues to be the victim of bureaucratic infighting and ongoing negotiations, what concerns me is that it also continues to deteriorate,” said Madelyn Glickfeld, a member of the California Coastal Commission.

Glickfeld, a Malibu resident, said it was “extremely frustrating that nothing has happened at the pier” in the 14 months since state officials first said an agreement was imminent.

Long battered by severe storms and neglected by absentee landlords, the pier--which the state bought for $2.5 million from a Los Angeles businessman in 1980--is arguably Malibu’s most identifiable landmark.

It has had a rough-and-tumble history, having collapsed into the ocean during a storm half a century ago. Once rebuilt, it was twice closed as unsafe, the last time in 1983, for an entire year.

Supporters thought its fortunes were about to improve when the state announced plans in November, 1989, to award the concession rights to Bob Yuro and three partners for the next 20 years in exchange for their agreeing to spend up to $3.2 million to restore the landmark.

However, state officials and others familiar with the negotiations said last week that a final agreement was undone at the last minute when the State Lands Commission intervened in a bid to acquire part of the revenue from the arrangement.

Although the state parks department owns the pier, the beach beneath it is owned by the State Lands Commission, which leases it to the parks department.

After months of squabbling, the dispute between the agencies was resolved last October, officials said, after the State Lands Commission agreed to bow out.

“We agreed to disagree over certain aspects of the arrangement, and so (the dispute) is not a problem anymore,” said Jim Trout, the State Lands Commission’s assistant executive officer.

But the contract talks have continued to be snarled since the commission relaxed its demands because of several changes in the original agreement, officials said. The officials have declined to discuss the terms of the arrangement, saying it is part of an ongoing negotiation.

In an interview, Yuro said the parks agency sent him a new contract proposal last week, and he expressed hope that the matter may be concluded soon.

Yuro, who operates Alice’s Restaurant on the pier, and his partners have said they envision the pier as a tourist attraction with a family atmosphere. Among the ideas being considered are a multilevel gift shop at the pier’s seaward end, a new restaurant across from Alice’s at the landward end and an expanded sportfishing operation.

Gianini of the parks department said that once the concessionaires sign the agreement, it may be two more months before it goes into effect because the document must be reviewed by several agencies, including the Department of General Services and the attorney general’s office.

Some of the pier’s boosters have expressed private concerns that the pier may not withstand a severe storm and fear that it may be several years before major repairs are done. They say it is unlikely that the concessionaires would be willing to spend large amounts of money on repairs without reasonable assurances that their plans to transform the pier will be approved. Any plans to alter the character of the pier are almost certain to need approval from local officials, once Malibu becomes a city, and would also need the approval of the California Coastal Commission.

“I think what frustrates many of us is that the state has not been particularly eager to provide much information as to what is really going on with the pier,” said hotelier Marty Cooper, who owns the Malibu Beach Inn.

“It’s too valuable a resource for this community to just let the matter drag on and on, when a major storm could destroy the pier just like that,” he said.

State parks officials have said they are unaware of any engineering studies that have been conducted at the pier since the state opened bids for a concessionaire in 1989.

“We have maintenance people who observe the pilings and that sort of thing, but otherwise it has been since before the contract (began to be negotiated) that there was any kind of professional assessment,” said Kenneth Leigh, chief ranger for the agency’s Santa Monica Mountains District.

Some community leaders, and the Malibu Chamber of Commerce, had criticized the state for not doing the repair work itself before trying to turn the pier over to a private concessionaire.

Besides Yuro, who has operated the pier restaurant since 1974, the other partners are Malibu builder Fred Patrick, Peter Palazzo, the restaurant’s co-owner, and Andre Guerrero, its executive chef.

The state had been looking for a new operator for months at the time Yuro and the others were chosen, trying to fill the gap created by a former landlord, who abruptly walked away from a 20-year lease in 1988 and then sued the state for more than $20 million in damages, alleging breach of contract.

In March, 1988, the state awarded the concession contract to West Los Angeles lawyer Joel Ladin, who promptly announced he was raising the rents of Alice’s and Malibu Sport Fishing, the pier’s mainstays, by up to 500%.

Ladin, unable to attract new businesses to the pier, and faced with having to spend more money than expected for repairs, walked away from the contract in November, 1988. His lawsuit against the state is pending.

The pier, built in 1905 as part of the private domain of Malibu rancher Frederick Hastings Rindge, was nearly destroyed by a severe storm in 1942. Rebuilt in 1944, it served as a U.S. Coast Guard security station toward the end of World War II. The state bought the pier from businessman William Huber, whose father had bought it for $50,000 in 1944 and rebuilt it.