According to Modica, the pier will require "extensive repairs (excluding seismic upgrades, or building restoration) in the next several years to keep it functioning for its current use." Those cost factors have led to city staff's decision to build a new structure, he said.

"In fact, we believe the cost of the pier repairs to bring it to the current code could meet or even exceed the cost to replace it without any improvements to the functionality of the facilities," Modica told LBREPORT.com.

The city has budgeted $25 million in the five-year capital plan for Tidelands funding -- $10 million in fiscal year 2018 and $15 million in fiscal year 2019 -- to replace the pier.

Currently, the city has identified $250,000 to perform a feasibility study, according to the deputy city manager.

"The feasibility study will look at the issues surrounding the pier and some of the options, current and future use, functionality including size and location," Modica explained. City planners have launched a plan to replace the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, with a push to intensify in about three years. "We have done an assessment in the past ... and found it to be in poor condition and does not meet current seismic criteria for waterfront structures," Deputy City Manager Tom Modica told LBREPORT.com.

Currently, city planners have attempting to finalize plans for a new Plaza Pool, which has been budgeted for now at $99 million in Tidelands funds. Once that project is completed, estimated in about three years, the pier replacement will get underway, 3rd District Councilwoman Suzie Price told a Belmont Shore Residents Association meeting Thursday night (Oct. 9), without offering details.

An original wooden Belmont Pier was built in 1915 near 39th Place at a location known as "Devil's Gate" for an off-shore rock below the bluff.

In 1967 the current concrete Pier opened, east of the old wooden pier. The Belmont Plaza Pier was later renamed the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier. The Pier is 1,800 feet long and 24 feet wide, with an enlarged hexagonal area at the seaward end, and two wings extending 120 feet east and west. A structure at the end of the pier housed a snack bar.