Redondo Settles Lawsuits With 2 Pier Leaseholders

The Redondo Beach City Council on Tuesday quietly settled the remaining lawsuits filed by pier businesses against the city in the aftermath of the fire and storms that struck the historic structure in 1988.

The actions ended nearly three years of costly litigation and political battles over what to do with the city’s damaged pier.

In a far-reaching agreement with two major pier leaseholders, the city agreed to rebuild the pier, approve a lease sale and extend the lease of Redondo Beach Fisherman’s Cove. In return, Fisherman’s Cove and the other leaseholder, Pier Properties, agreed to drop their Superior Court suits, which sought to prove that the city was legally obligated to keep the pier up and running in perpetuity.

The Redondo Beach pier was badly damaged in 1988, after a series of winter storms and an electrical fire made wreckage out of the familiar horseshoe-shaped promenade.

Merchants who did business on the pier--including Pier Properties and Fisherman’s Cove--charged afterward that the city had a legal responsibility to rebuild the landmark. But questions from some in the community about the pier’s desirability and concern about the legal precedent those claims implied prompted the city to delay renovation.

Last year, after a trial court found that the city was contractually obligated to rebuild, the City Council sought an advisory vote from the community, which was split on the renovation issue. Neighbors of the pier called it an eyesore that drew riffraff, crowds and crime, but a majority of the voters felt it was a historical landmark that should be restored.

Still, the city did not want to foreclose the legal option that it might not have to pay for the renovation or that it could rebuild the pier in a different configuration, and so continued to appeal the trial court decision. Meanwhile, Pier Properties pressed for damages for the city’s failure to rebuild the portions of the pier that included the leasehold.

Fisherman’s Cove, which includes the Fun Factory and which was spared in 1988, also sought financial damages, charging that destruction elsewhere on the pier had cut into its profits.

Mayor Brad Parton said the settlement, approved after a closed council session Tuesday night, allows the city to avoid paying several million dollars in damage claims and eliminates the possibility of a precedent-setting ruling that would force Redondo Beach to have a pier forever.

Meanwhile, it allows Fisherman’s Cove to complete a long-planned purchase of Pier Properties, and guarantees that, this time at least, the pier will be rebuilt, he said.