HUNTINGTON BEACH : Council OKs Plan for Pier Businesses

The City Council gave approval this week for constructing commercial buildings, including a restaurant and a bait shop, on the city’s new pier. The pier, which has been under construction since fall of 1990, is scheduled to open next month.

By unanimous vote, the council turned aside a resident’s effort to halt construction of some of the pier buildings on the grounds that they would be for commercial purposes such as selling food. The resident, Albert Watkins, protested that “the original intent of the pier was for the non-commercial enjoyment of the people who visited the beach.”

But city staff researchers, in a report to the council, wrote, “. . . It appears that some type of commercial bait-and-tackle shop has been present on the pier since the original concrete structure was constructed in 1914. . . . It is clear that the pier has long supported commercial activity and commercial uses have been present since its inception.”

Watkins had appealed the city Planning Commission’s approval of the pier buildings. But the City Council, at its meeting Monday, rejected Watkins’ arguments and upheld the Planning Commission’s action.

Five buildings are planned for the new pier, the same number that was on the old pier, which was razed in 1990.

Two new buildings, a lifeguard tower and a restroom facility, would be non-commercial. The other three structures will be a pier-end restaurant, a snack shop, and a combination bait and snack shop. The old pier had three similar commercial buildings.

The City Council has voted to use revenue from a beach parking surcharge to pay for the lifeguard tower and new restrooms on the pier.