An environmental group has filed a lawsuit seeking to block initial work on the planned replacement of the Ocean Beach Pier, which the group alleges is going forward without proper environmental review.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court by the Animal Protection and Rescue League concerns an $8 million contract awarded to consulting firm Moffatt & Nichol for work to get the Ocean Beach Pier Replacement Project to "shovel-ready condition," according to the suit.
Last July, state and local officials revealed a "major windfall of state funding for San Diego" that included a pile of cash for fixing the pier in Ocean Beach.
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"Some of the notable projects include $8.4 million for repairs to the Ocean Beach pier, $50 million for San Diego’s Pure Water project, $18 million for clean energy storage at San Vicente Reservoir and $3.1 million for Chollas Creek, in addition to $27.3 million to combat homelessness," the officials said last summer.
According to the lawsuit filed recently, this initial work has been described as a "feasibility or planning study for possible future actions," but involves drilling, boring, sand excavation and other changes to the area surrounding the 56-year-old pier before the potential environmental effects have been considered.
City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.
Construction to replace the deteriorating pier is expected to begin by 2026. In a report from Moffat & Nichol that was released publicly last year, the firm concluded the pier "has reached the end of its service life" and required "corrective action" to prevent further degradation.
More News About the O.B. Pier
Bryan Pease, the attorney who filed this week's lawsuit on behalf of the APRL, said in a statement, "While disguised as merely a `study,' the contract approved by the city involves auger boring, drilling, sand excavation, and other invasive activities that will also cause fumes and noise pollution in Ocean Beach, without any environmental review."
The suit seeks an injunction preventing that work from going forward until it can be deemed compliant with the California Environmental Quality Act.
The $8.4 million in funding for the pier, while not enough to replace the aging structure, will go a long way toward remedying its most pressing problems. The pier was partially reopened last May after repairs to damage caused by storms earlier in the year were completed. At that time, city engineers said a portion of the pier could safely reopen after railings and other parts were fixed, but the part of the pier beyond the cafe but before the expansion joint remained closed for safety reasons.
At about that same time, it was revealed that the city had completed an inspection of the pier in 2019 and found it had "reached the end of its service life."
The 2019 inspection found cracked pilings and erosion along the pier's 1,971-foot length -- but particularly at the junction where the downward-sloping pier from the land meets the slightly upward-sloping pier heading out above the water.
City News Service contributed to this report — Ed.
