Private pier in San Diego’s posh La Playa enclave will get public access stairway

The private pier overlooking Kellogg Beach and connected to two upland mansions in San Diego’s posh La Playa neighborhood is poised to become partially accessible to all passersby for the first time since it was erected more than 80 years ago.

Earlier this week, the city of San Diego’s hearing officer approved a coastal development permit that allows the owner of the historic Peckham House at 2905 Nichols St. to construct at his expense a public access stairway leading up to the elevated wooden pier. The stairs will be just east of the La Playa Trail on city property, abutting port tidelands.

The permit will become effective later this month if the city’s decision is not appealed to San Diego’s Planning Commission.

“It’s a simple solution to get the public access that they don’t have today,” said Jim Whalen, whose land-use consulting firm helped secure the coastal development permit for the upland homeowner, Jeffrey Hamann.

If the project survives the appeal process, the stairs are expected to be installed, alongside new gates preventing access to the homes above and the private boat dock below, within the next couple of months, he said.

Simple though the stairs may be, they represent a marked transformation.

The Nichols Street Pier, located at the unimproved intersection of Nichols Street and San Antonio, is one of five piers known as the La Playa Piers. The small piers dot a quiet coastline, starting with the Lacy Pier near the Talbot Street entrance to the La Playa Trail and ending with the now-named Nichols Street Pier near Kellogg Beach on the western shore of the Shelter Island Yacht Basin.

The Nichols Street Pier, which dates to around 1935, is believed to be the first of the 1930s-era piers to be built in the area. It’s also the last to contemplate public access. And the stairs are linked to Hamann’s desire to get back into good standing with the Port of San Diego, which has permitting power over the private docks.

The pier, an extension of the impressive estates at 2900 Nichols and 2905 Nichols, has historically provided the homeowners with exclusive access to the water. Private ramps extend from lush grounds down to the gated pier, gangway and dock in San Diego Bay. A special arrangement with the Port of San Diego — by way of a Tidelands Use and Occupancy Permit, or TUOP — previously allowed the dock to be used as a backyard boat slip.

However, the permit expired in late 2018 and was not renewed. That’s because the port was, at the time, drafting language for its forthcoming master plan to comply with the California Coastal Commission’s long-standing position on private piers.

Formed by the state in 1962, the port has jurisdiction over 34 miles of tidelands in and around San Diego Bay. The Nichols Street Pier and its white-picket peers predate the agency and the California Coastal Act of 1976. They are in violation of coastal access laws, according to the Coastal Commission. Residential uses are prohibited on port tidelands, which are held in trust by the port for the benefit of all Californians.

In 1980, as a condition of certification of the original Port Master Plan, the Coastal Commission required that the piers be converted to public use or torn down. In the four decades since, the agency has not changed its position.

Meanwhile, the La Playa Piers, with the exception of the Nichols Street Pier, have been updated over the years to comply with the spirit of the law.

Today, three of the piers sport signage that invite the public to traverse most of the over-water structures from sunrise to sunset. But locked gates restrict access to the private floating docks at the end of the piers. Two of the quasi-public piers are currently permitted by the port for private dock use by three different upland homeowners, public records show.

The La Playa Yacht Club Pier, at the foot of San Antonio Avenue and Qualtrough Street, is an outlier. The port and the Coastal Commission agreed in the mid-1980s that it was not subject to removal because it is available for use by club members and the general public.

The four other piers may be on shifting sand.

Last month, the Board of Port Commissioners approved the new port master plan, including policy language that protects the existing piers. But the Coastal Commission, which has the final say on whether the plan is implemented, is not on the same page.

“We have tried to work with the Port of San Diego and nearby property owners to ensure public access without restrictions in order to preserve the La Playa Piers,” Melody Lasiter, coastal program analyst with the Coastal Commission in San Diego, said in a statement to the Union-Tribune. “This requirement has been in place for decades as a condition of the commission’s approval of the (original) Port Master Plan but has yet to be implemented.”

For now, though, the addition of the public access stairway to the Nichols Street Pier is enough to appease the port, meaning the pier will once again become eligible for backyard boat parking.

The port said through a spokesperson that it is in talks with The Peckham House LLC to issue a permit to allow private use of the Nichols Street Pier’s gangway and float. The Peckham House LLC is registered to Hamann.

“The TUOP can’t be issued until the applicant is able to assemble all of the necessary (city of San Diego) permits to build the stairs, which will allow for public access on the pier,” the spokesperson said. “Once all of the permits are in place, the port would be in a position to enter into the new TUOP soon after.”

Whalen, who represents the upland homeowner, confirmed his client’s interest.

The private-use permit will likely require improvements to the Nichols Street Pier dock. The dock, currently under the port’s care, is a safety hazard because it is sinking into the bay, Whalen said. The boat-docking privilege also comes with a modest price tag. The port charges $20,000 to $27,500 a year for private use of the other piers, public records show.