OCEAN BEACH – It’s been more than two years since the Ocean Beach Pier permanently closed for safety and structural concerns in late 2023. The city is planning for a replacement, but still has no clear idea of how it’ll pay for it.
Ocean Beach residents aren’t just concerned that constructing a new pier will face continued delays with no solution in sight. They’re also getting increasingly anxious with the state of the still-standing pier — especially considering plans for the replacement include elements of the current structure.
Ralph Teyssier, the son of the OB Pier’s original engineer and a member of the former Ocean Beach Pier Task Force, said the pier is being “pillaged.”
He cites historic elements of the pier, such as the original bronze plaque, which was stolen, and the bars of the original gate that were cut through, possibly by those who vandalized the former Walking on Water Cafe.
These pieces of the pier won’t be viable for incorporation into the future design even though they’ve been built into the plans to help maintain the pier’s historic character, Teyssier said.
The city plans to use the pier gates and other historic features on the new pier, but these details aren’t set in stone and will be confirmed during the design-build process.
“They don’t have security down there, so much so that someone got murdered,” Teyssier said. “Here’s the problem: When you have something like this, an area of town becomes derelict. That just spreads.”
The city’s new timeline for the project calls for completing design work and beginning construction sometime in 2029, with construction lasting into 2032.
Denny Knox, another member of the now-disbanded Ocean Beach Task Force and executive director of the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association, said she isn’t encouraged the city can keep to its timeline. That’s because the city already blew the timeline it initially announced in August of 2024, which anticipated awarding a contract for the project in December of 2025, with construction starting in early 2027.
“I’m in my mid-to-late 70s, I was really hoping to have my 80th birthday out there,” Knox said. “I’m going to stay hopeful because I want to keep pushing.”
Tyler Becker, a city spokesperson, said staff is in the process of reviewing the project’s environmental impact. He said these reviews typically take between two and five years. They began this process 15 months ago and expect to have a report ready for review sometime this year.
A California Coastal Commission spokesperson said the city of San Diego has been exploring ways to speed up that review.
After the city finishes the environmental review, though, it still needs to find a funding source for a project that is expected to cost between $170 million and $190 million. So far, the city has identified just $8.4 million from in state funding in 2021 to begin work with the consultant firm, Moffat & Nichol.
Becker said they are exploring options for both state and federal funding as well as public-private partnerships.
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