Storm-Battered King Harbor Seeing Signs of Recovery

A year after the start of a series of storm and fire disasters, King Harbor in Redondo Beach is on the way to recovery, city officials and harbor business people say.

More than $31 million in private and public improvement projects are completed, in progress or being planned to restore the harbor as a major South Bay recreational area before the city’s centennial observance in 1992, said Harbor Director Sheila Schoettger.

“When all the scars are gone, King Harbor will be even more beautiful,� she said.

Schoettger acknowledged, however, that the city has financial hurdles to overcome, including raising $6 million needed to reconstruct the 60-year-old Horseshoe Pier, most of which was destroyed by fire in May.

The City Council voted in September to restore the pier after some contended that the pier attracted gangs and caused traffic congestion while others maintained that it was essential.

Meanwhile, 32 shops and restaurants of the original 48 are still in business on the south section of the Horseshoe and the adjacent Monstad Pier. Merchants say the number of visitors has dropped substantially--partly, they say, because many people think the pier area was wiped out by the fire and storms last year.

“There are people living within six or eight blocks who have not checked yet to see whether anybody’s left here,� said Chuck Milner, owner of the Pier Import Shop.

Milner and his wife, Judy, lost a cluster of four other shops in the Edge Restaurant building when two sides of the pier were damaged in the January and April storms and then finished off by the fire and more high waves in May.

Some shop owners have lost more than half of their customers, he said, partly because there are fewer places to attract visitors to the pier area.

The January storm also demolished the Blue Moon Saloon and heavily damaged Reuben’s Restaurant and the Portofino Inn, all on the harbor shore north of the pier.

Restoration of those restaurants is in the planning or construction stages, with Reuben’s and the Portofino planning to reopen in June.

To protect King Harbor, the U.S. Corps of Engineers plans to raise the south portion of the harbor’s northern breakwater about 5 feet to the 20-foot-plus level of the rest of the barrier. The shorter southern breakwater will be doubled in length to 600 feet to head off waves at the harbor entrance.

The $5.9-million breakwater project is expected to be completed in early 1991, with the city paying 35% of the cost and the federal government paying the rest.

Schoettger said the city has applied for a loan from the state to cover its share of the breakwater project, but financing for the new pier “is much less clear.�

Possible avenues, she said, include a bond issue, a bank loan and contributions from businesses and individuals. She said those contributions have reached $30,000 without a major fund-raising effort.

A design committee is scheduled to select a firm by early February to draft initial proposals. If all goes well, construction on the pier, possibly using steel or concrete pilings instead of wood, could start late this year or in early 1990, Schoettger said.