Landmark Pier’s Timber ‘Character’ May Need Support : Preservation: Some want Ventura span rebuilt to original length, remaining state’s longest wood wharf. Others say steel or cement strengthening is needed to prevent future storm damage.

Hours after stormy seas tore away 420 feet of the Ventura Pier, former city parks director Barbara Harison headed to the beach to survey the broken landmark she spent nearly a decade preserving.

Dangling in the surf were new timber pilings she had helped buy. Somewhere down the beach was a commemorative plank she had purchased.

Her plank--like the community’s financial and emotional investment--had been swept away by powerful waves and washed up on the sand with a stack of splintered pier supports.

Her commitment to the 123-year-old landmark, however, remains intact.

“I felt that we shouldn’t give up,” Harison said, remembering her reaction when she first laid eyes on the collapsed structure. “The pier is a cornerstone. Otherwise, this is just another Southern California beach.”

Like Harison, many Ventura residents and longtime pier supporters want to see the city’s historic wood structure rebuilt to its former 1,958 feet, maintaining the city’s prized status as home to the longest timber pier in the state.

But the same residents say it is equally important to rebuild a pier that can withstand pounding surf and is sure to remain open.

“Yes, we like the way it looks and we like the character, but we would like to have it be permanent,” Harison said. “Whether it is a little bit shorter or a little bit different material, I think we are going to have to consider that.”

The same holds true for Monty Clark, chairman of a steering committee that has raised $400,000 to support the wharf’s annual maintenance.

“Most of the folks I have talked to would like to see it put back to the 1,958 feet that it was,” Clark said. “But they don’t care whether its steel or cement or whatever.”

Insurance is expected to cover the estimated $1.5 million in damage the pier sustained in the Dec. 13 storm. But insurance will not cover rebuilding the collapsed portion with materials other than wood--such as steel or concrete that are stronger but more expensive.

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No one knows yet how much it will cost to repair the pier or where the money would come from if not covered by insurance.

Clark said raising money for additional repairs will very likely fall exclusively to the city, noting that the endowment fund was set up only to maintain the pier, not rebuild it.

“To be honest, I don’t know where they would get it,” he said. “Is it an investment . . . I don’t think our committee would do that. We have already invested in this.”

The endowment fund was recently bolstered by about 100 people who bought commemorative planks, joining a list of 3,087 supporters. The new names were sandblasted onto a wall at the base of the pier last week.

Edna Mills, a 49-year Ventura resident and longtime pier supporter, was the first person to buy a plank two years ago. Nailed down at the very end of the pier, her $125 plank and those purchased by her family were among the first to go during the storm.

“The whole darn family went floating,” she said. “It is really disheartening.”

City officials estimate that 18- to 20-foot waves crushed the end of the pier 12 days ago, forcing the pier to close for the third time in the past year.

Following a $3.5-million reconstruction, the pier was closed last December when waves knocked piles loose from the structure’s midsection. It reopened briefly in January, but was closed again for three months after high waves caused more damage.

The closures are the latest chapter in the pier’s stormy history. Heavily damaged by waves in 1986, it was fenced off for more than two years before a 1,200-foot section was reopened in 1988.

During those years, Harison and other city officials sought grant money to repair the deteriorating structure.

At that time, the pier was owned by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, which wanted to junk the weather-beaten structure, Harison said.

But Ventura officials would have none of that. Pushed by love for the old structure, the City Council voted in 1990 to assume ownership and pay for its upkeep. In return, the state came up with $3.5 million for the restoration.

The city has set aside about $50,000 for annual repairs, but the damage from this most recent storm far exceeds that amount.

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The three closures in this year alone have caused some residents to joke that Ventura’s travel brochures should be altered to read: Home to the longest wooden pier in the state--weather permitting.

“I would love to see it reconstructed and I am glad to hear that we have some insurance,” said Jim Luttjohann, owner of The Daily Grind coffeehouse and a member of the city’s tourism board.

But, he said, “I hope this time they look realistically at what has been lacking in its strength to allow it to fall down so many times.”

Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau Director Bill Clawson said it is important for the city to prevent future closures because the pier is a key link to the city’s tourism industry.

“It is a vital component to our overall tourism picture,” Clawson said. “You can walk from the downtown shopping district down California Street to the Promenade and to the pier. It’s a great little way to enjoy the heart of Ventura.”

Although having the longest wood pier in the state gives the city bragging rights, Clawson said most visitors are not even aware of the distinction. From a tourism standpoint, it is more important to make sure the pier stays open.

That is why city leaders are considering rebuilding the pier with stronger materials, such as steel or concrete, to protect it from future wave damage.

“It is going to happen again if they put wooden pilings back in,” Councilman Jim Monahan warned. “They did an excellent job of rebuilding that pier. But we have tremendous storms here. That ocean is unforgiving.”

Before moving to Ventura, Clawson headed the tourism bureau in Pismo Beach, a city that reinforced its historic pier with hollow steel piles and a steel-beamed skeleton beneath the traditional wood decking.

Clawson said that structural design would work well in Ventura without ruining the pier’s appearance.

“My personal favorite would be wood and steel like the Pismo pier,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would know the difference.”

The pier’s appearance was at the heart of the City Council’s decision in the early 1990s to rebuild the pier with wood, instead of the stronger steel or concrete.

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During two community workshops, residents told planners that they wanted a recreational pier free of commercial shops and the carnival-like flavor of other Southland piers.

“The message was loud and clear that they didn’t want the pier all cluttered with buildings and such,” said Harison, who served as a city liaison during those meetings. “There was this anti-feeling of commercial piers. They did not want a Santa Monica [Pier] and Stearn’s Wharf.”

But Former Mayor John McWherter said the community’s desire to have a nice-looking pier left the vulnerable wood structure open to the storm damage it has now received.

“The decision was not made in an atmosphere of what-is-a-good-thing-to-do,” McWherter said. “People wanted to keep it because it was a relic. That’s why I was concerned--because it was a relic.”

A structural engineer, McWherter said he suggested shoring up the pier with concrete, a less attractive but stronger material. He still contends concrete would be the best material with which to rebuild the pier.

“If they really wanted to create a working pier,” he said, “they should do the whole thing out of reinforced concrete. That’s the way those are done that are standing.”

But, he added, the community’s desire to have an attractive old-fashioned wood pier dominated the debate in the early 1990s. He doubts whether city residents would allow a concrete pier.

“People wouldn’t stand for that,” he said. “They didn’t then, and I don’t think they would now.”

Harison agreed. Concrete pilings that look like freeway ramps would never be accepted by the community, she said.

“We spent a lot of time talking about all the options, the pros and cons of wood versus concrete,” she said. “There was a strong desire to keep it a wooden fishing pier.”

But pier consultant Walt Hurtienne, who worked as a consultant on the Ventura Pier project, said a combination of materials can be used that would not mar the pier’s traditional appearance.

“There is nothing to prevent you from using all three materials if you want to,” he said. “You can come up with these different combinations.”

Other Southern California cities have faced similar decisions over the past two decades.

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After a 1981 storm, the Seal Beach Pier was rebuilt with wood piles for historic and aesthetic reasons.

But numerous other piers, including those in Santa Barbara and Pismo Beach, have rebuilt their piers with a combination of materials, such as steel and reinforced concrete supports and wood decking.

Ventura officials are looking at a number of options. Public Works Director Ron Calkins told the City Council last week that it will take three to four months to come up with recommendations.

In the meantime, the city is waiting for a study to be completed by a Bay Area coastal engineer that will explain what caused or contributed to the pier’s collapse.

“There is a lot of work ahead,” Calkins said. “We have already started and are eager to move ahead.”