The latest rendition of the design for the city of San Diegos Ocean Beach Pier renewal project — this time unveiling amenities incorporating public feedback over the past six months — was the subject of the citys fifth community meeting on plans to replace the deteriorating 58-year-old, storm-damaged pier.

The city revealed its preferred pier design concept at a meeting in April, and “that concept received overwhelmingly positive feedback and provided us with key information and guidance for elements of the pier including lighting, shading, plaza design, fishing amenities, interpretive and educational elements, retail and dining, city spokesman Tyler Becker said in an email to the Point Loma-OB Monthly.

So at the meeting Oct. 26 at the Liberty Station Conference Center in Point Loma, Rick España, principal architect of RNT Architects, one of the consulting firms working on the new pier design, laid out amenities that could be included in the final design, including more benches and umbrella stands at the fishing spaces, as well as specialized cutting boards.

A rendering depicts a fishing area on one of the arms of the potential new OB Pier. (City of San Diego)

“We have worked closely with the community to understand their hopes for a future Ocean Beach Pier and believe that the refined preferred design concept will showcase their vision for the future of Ocean Beach,” Becker said.

City staff and project consultants say more than 5,000 online surveys were submitted that, along with feedback at the previous four community workshops, helped shape the concepts for the new pier.

“We’ve had quite a few online participants, and it seems that 65% of the community was supportive of where the plan was,” Scott Jordan, principal architect with Civitas, said at the Oct. 26 meeting. “We do feel that what we’re presenting is what we’ve grown with you all as a community.”

A rendering shows the preferred design for a planned replacement of the Ocean Beach Pier. (City of San Diego)

The potential replacement pier would maintain the long, linear experience of the current structure but with two curvy arms that extend it farther into the ocean. The new pier would be at least 2,000 feet long and about 22 feet wide along the deck. The current pier is 1,971 feet long.

The design also features various deck areas with shaded seating and vista points, along with potential retail, dining and community spaces.

Features highlighted at the Oct. 26 meeting were “sunset bleachers” — an elevated space that would be built to align with the trajectory of celestial bodies during the summer solstice — and the popular “infinity plaza,” which would offer unobstructed views of the ocean.

Rick España, principal architect of RNT Architects, describes the “sunset bleachers” part of the proposed new Ocean Beach Pier to guests at an Oct. 26 community meeting. (Tyler Faurot) The new Ocean Beach Piers “infinity plaza” would offer unobstructed views of the ocean. (City of San Diego)

“We’re aiming to make this a really exciting destination for people to meet and gather,” España said.

One of the newest features laid out in this round of design updates was the planned approach to lighting fixtures on the pier. Public input was split between low bollard lighting and taller light poles, and Jordan said both have been integrated into the design with ample spacing in between.

Aaron Fortier, a structural engineer with Moffatt & Nichol, the advisory firm that is guiding the city on the design process, said the replacement project is estimated to cost $170 million to $190 million, including demolition of the current pier and construction of the new one.

“Everything we’ve done so far and everything on this timeline up until the project is awarded to a contractor has been fully funded by an $8.4 million grant from the state of California specifically earmarked for the Ocean Beach Pier and the renewal project,” Fortier said. “Anything that happens beyond the award of the contract is going to have to come from another source.”

He said the team is investigating several funding opportunities, which are expected to be a combination of federal, state and local money.

Aaron Fortier, a structural engineer with advisory firm Moffatt & Nichol, speaks at an Oct. 26 community meeting about plans for an Ocean Beach Pier replacement. (Tyler Faurot)

The projects budget and funding proved to be a tender subject among some who attended the meeting and questioned what they considered the extravagance of the project’s scope and whether it inflated the cost.

Elif Cetin, director of engineering for the San Diego Engineering & Capital Projects Department, called the pier a “legacy project” and said it does not exceed the scope of similar coastal projects.

“The best way to create a design reflecting community input for a legacy project is by not making cost the only component of the decision,” Cetin said. “We are also going to do a design-build project to give the best price possible. When we pick that price range, we compare it to costs of similar offshore structures with recreational components. This pier is going to provide a variety of needs the cost is reflecting that.”

Jordan said the scope of the project is unique to the region but that by aiming large, it could realize its full potential.

“Even if we proposed a $100 million pier, people would’ve still been concerned about budget and funding,” Jordan said. “In the end, when it goes to a design-build, that design builder is going to come back and say ‘If we changed this, we could save X amount of dollars.’

Until we get to that point and know what funding is available, I think any good design builder would scale back what we’ve created, but we could never get to this if we didn’t start. We conceptually approach design to push it as far as we can. We can always scale back and reduce it, but if we set the vision too low and that’s all you ever achieve, you don’t get anything from it.”

Fortier said the plan’s technical studies are expected to be wrapped up by the end of the year. The project will need an environmental impact report and go through a series of reviews before acquiring permits and gathering requests for proposals from contractors.

Demolition and the start of construction are anticipated for the first quarter of 2028. The length of construction is unclear, partly because of a moratorium on summer construction, which also is when tides are typically lowest at the site.

In the meantime, project leaders said they plan to meet with community planning boards, the San Diego Historical Resources Board and the City Council and gather public comment on the environmental report.

In 2019, a report by Moffatt & Nichol said the OB Pier had reached the end of its service life, and the city eventually opted to move forward with a complete replacement, with support from community leaders.

The pier is permanently closed to the public because of storm-related damage the city has deemed too costly to repair before a full renewal project.

The iconic structure was closed in October 2023 in anticipation of winter storms, but unlike in previous years, it did not reopen in the spring after being seriously damaged by high surf.