Equipment and materials for the Seal Beach Pier repair project will be stored in the 10th Street parking lot, Associate Engineer David Spitz told the City Council this week.
Spitz told the council that most of the 10th Street lot would be used for either the construction project or permitted parking for oil workers.
The project is scheduled to start in early September.
Assistant City Manager Patrick Gallegos told the sun this week the project is tentatively scheduled to start the day after Labor Day.
The project is scheduled to take nine months. The California Coastal Commission will not allow construction in the coastal zone during the summer season.
Spitz said construction is scheduled to take place from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. According to Spitz, the end of the pier will be closed during the construction project. (The end of the pier has been closed since the May 2016 fire that destroyed the former site of Ruby’s Diner and an old, long-closed bait shack.) Most of the pier, however, is expected to remain open during the project. The Tot Lot, for example, will remain open.
As previously reported, the goal is to repair the pier so that it will be strong enough to support a restaurant building. There are no plans at this time to construct a restaurant building there. District One Councilwoman Ellery Deaton said it would be useful to have parking and equipment in one area. She pointed out that some of the city’s busiest beach days are on such days as Thanksgiving.
Spitz pointed out that it would be difficult to move the equipment and materials once they were in the parking lot. Deaton suggested the city find another parking site during the construction project.
In other news:
• Mayor/District Three Councilman Michael Varipapa requested a presentation on First Street issues, including the status of the former River’s End restauarant building and the former DWP site.
During the public comment segment of the meeting, a Seal Beach resident asked why the city was missing out on the rent from the building. (The future home of the “Beach House” restaurant is a city-owned building.) Beach House co-owner Brian Kyle told the Sun he could only say the restaurant would open “as soon as possible.” The other co-owners are David Coe, a Huntington Beach resident and businessman; and Rosie Ritchie, a real estate agent and member of the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce board.
• Staff pulled a proposed urgency ordinance to regulate cell phone facilities on public property after the city received a letter from a law firm representing Verizon that questioned the legality of some of the proposed regulations.
