New Pier Will Open Without Any Buildings : Construction: The Huntington Beach council is distressed to learn that toilets, a lifeguard tower and shops will be lacking. The city is seeking funds for the structures.

The city’s long-awaited new pier is scheduled to be finished in June.

But startled City Council members learned Tuesday night that the new, $11.4-million structure will be bereft of buildings and amenities, such as public toilets and a new lifeguard tower. Moreover, the city still doesn’t have working architectural drawings for new pier buildings, despite spending $100,000 for “conceptual designs” during the past two years.

The announcements by city staff triggered a vocal reaction from the council Tuesday night.

* Mayor Jim Silva denounced the $100,000 expenditure as “ridiculous,” adding that the city “is being bled to death.”

* Councilman Jack Kelly criticized the lack of a new lifeguard tower. He repeatedly questioned why the city had waited so long to seriously begin planning such an important facility on the pier.

* Councilwoman Grace Winchell said the council may have “serious questions” about the design and cost of a restaurant as well as bait and snack shops on the pier. She persuaded her colleagues to delay action on the larger buildings.

* City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga told the council that no funding source had yet been found for the proposed pier buildings. The city staff estimated that the cafe, bait and snack shops together would cost about $1 million. The restroom and new lifeguard towers would cost an additional $300,000, according to staff estimates.

After a heated debate, the council agreed on some partial solutions for the “empty pier” problem. The council unanimously voted to extend, for a year longer, a beach-parking surtax. That money will be dedicated to paying the $300,000 needed for the lifeguard tower and restrooms.

The council also directed the city staff to expedite work on new a lifeguard tower. In the meantime, the city’s old lifeguard tower will temporarily be perched on the new pier when it opens, city staff members said.

More delays may come in getting state Coastal Commission approval for the new pier buildings. Since final designs for the pier buildings have never been completed, the city has not yet approached the commission to review and approve the plans.

Kelly bitterly criticized the added delay.

“Why did we wait so long to go to the Coastal Commission?” he asked. “There will be no bathrooms on the pier when it opens because the buildings won’t be done.”

Silva said he was appalled to learn that the city has spent $100,000 in architect fees for “conceptual designs,” but still has no working plans for pier buildings.

Uberuaga said the council itself had decided several years ago to have a community-based pier design committee. That committee has held numerous meetings, he said.

“It was a long process, and it involved the expertise of an architect,” Uberuaga said. The city thus paid $100,000 for architectural services along the way, the city administrator added.

Silva said he was nonetheless disturbed at the architectural cost.

“I can’t see taking taxpayer money and burning it,” he said. “This is terrible.”

The council meeting ended with no solution on how to pay for the cafe and bait and snack shops on the pier or when to proceed with final architectural plans for them. Some city preservationists have urged the city to use the old bait and snack shops that were removed from the pier when it was razed in 1990. But engineers have said those 1920s-era structures are not strong enough to be reused.

The former restaurant, called The End Cafe, was washed to sea in the January, 1988, storms that devastated the old pier.

Missing Amenities

Plans for the $11.4-million pier now under contruction include a restaurant, a lifeguard tower and a bait and snack shop. But council members this week learned that city officials had found no funding source for the buildings.