Effort to get San Clemente Pier dressed up for 2028 Olympics and its centennial is underway

An effort to preserve the San Clemente Pier, which turns 100 in 2028, is underway, with plans to beautify its entrance and make the already popular destination an even more enticing standout for the 2028 Olympics.

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The 1,296-foot wooden pier at the southern end of Orange County was built in 1928, though refurbished a few times since.

Since 2016, the local nonprofit PierPride has been working in partnership with the city of San Clemente and the county of Orange to further spruce it up. The group recently announced its rebranding to the San Clemente Pier Conservancy and, with that, kicked off a fundraising campaign for a $400,000 entryway project that, with the city’s support, will begin in September.

The name change, said Eileen Kawas, the conservancy’s president, is much more than a new label, it reflects the group’s stewardship while signaling a broader vision and a stronger sense of purpose to ensure the pier remains a place of memories for generations to come.

“It’s almost 100 years old, and it screams San Clemente,” Kawas said of the pier — one of just five in Orange County and the only in the south — and its inspiring 360-degree view looking back at the cliffs and outward to the Catalina and San Clemente islands.

“If you walk out on the pier and look back on the city, people will tell you they can be on the Greek Isles or somewhere in Spain,” Mayor Rick Loeffler said of the views offered from the structure he considers the city’s anchor. “The hills and all the tile roofs, it’s just what makes San Clemente the Spanish village-by-the-sea. That’s what really put the frame on what our city is.”

More than 2 million people visit the pier annually, officials said, and ahead of its 100th birthday to be celebrated Sept. 16, 2028, the conservancy, with help from the city and county, wants the structure to be ready to welcome guests visiting and staying in town, especially with Olympics surfings set to happen nearby at Lower Trestles in 2028.

Loeffler said the city wants the pier and its surrounding bowl spruced up for the Olympics, especially because it will be difficult for surfing fans to get tickets at the Lower Trestles venue and will be looking for an opportunity to still feel like they are part of the action.

“We want to have viewing parties, and we’re hoping to get the live feed of the surfing, where we can actually show it as it happens as opposed to regular TV showing surfing at night when the events are long over,” Loeffler said, adding that there are hopes of several viewing locations citywide. “We’re really looking to have it at the pier with a big, big screen next to the pier where you can actually almost see the surf at Trestles there, but we can also be watching it live.”

In addition, he said there is a goal to have food trucks and to create a sort of “mini surfing Olympic village.”

“We’re really lobbying for, instead of having the medal ceremony at Trestles, where there’s hardly anybody there and not that great of a backdrop, we would love to have the ceremony actually at the pier,” he said.

That decision is up to the U.S. Olympic Committee, but the city is “lobbying hard.”

“It would be better logistically, too; the cameras would be easier to set up as opposed to having it down on the rocks at Trestles,” Loeffler said. “If that could happen, that would be the culmination of all of this. We could have 10,000 people down there compared to a couple of thousand. The surfers would be more stoked about it.”

Getting the pier’s gateway opened up is also what the city’s founder, Ole Hansen, envisioned, Loeffler added.

“He wanted people to walk down Del Mar and come across the pier as this welcoming entrance; we’ve come away from that a little,” he said. “The vegetation has grown, the OCTA has its bus stop and train stop. It’s kinda been blocked and hasn’t been that welcoming an opening.

“The conservancy wants to restore that and bring it back to the jewel it was 100 years ago.”

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When the entrance project commences, it will be headed up by the city’s public works, with some help from a subcontractor, Loeffler said, adding that the city was already planning repair work on the pier and thought the conservancy’s plan for the bowl area would go hand in hand with a larger overall project. And the city handling the work keeps the costs down, he said.

The council approved the plan earlier this year after the conservancy worked with Public Works on its development.

The goal is to address the entrance along Avenida Victoria, which Kawas said will reflect what it was like in 1928, when it was possible to stand on the street and see all the way to the end of the pier.

A key element of the project is encouraging greater use and awareness of the railroad underpass as a safe alternative for pier and beach access. To do that, she said, there will be a focus on cleanliness and safety.

Murals created by local artists — there will be a call for this later this year — will focus on San Clemente’s history and marine life, and the underpass will be improved with better lighting and a sound system designed to deter people from hanging out overnight.

There is also a plan to minimize traffic congestion along the street, already busy with visitors arriving by trolley, Metrolink, cars, e-bikes, and on foot. The plaza area will be enlarged to expand the view corridor and restore it to its original appearance, with new drought-tolerant landscaping planted. There will be benches so folks can gaze at the ocean while they’re waiting for their transportation to arrive.

“That project is kicking off right after Labor Day, and we’re hoping for a ribbon-cutting in October or November,” Kawas said.

Since redevelopment agencies were phased out in California in 2012, limiting available resources for the pier, the nonprofit has helped raise money to fill the gap between what the city could provide and what the community wanted to see for the pier. While the city took care of the pier’s structural needs such as maintaining the pilings underneath, the nonprofit group addressed needs up top, or as Kawas calls it, the pier’s “experience.”

“Each year, we survey the city and the community, and we ask what they’d like to see done on the pier,” she said. “And, we take our projects from there.

“Usually, we agree on a capital project for the pier, and (the conservancy) will pay 25% and the city does the rest,” Kawas added.

Kawas said she’s hopeful the group, with its rebranding, can raise between $2 million and $3 million to establish an endowment to help future generations preserve the pier.

“We’re hoping we’ll achieve that goal by 2028, the 100th birthday,” she added.

Sponsorships will be available for the three benches, two murals in the underpass and a stairway mural planned as part of this upcoming program. There will also be a plaque listing sponsors.

Also, after Labor Day, the group’s project with the city to replace the railings with new, lower-maintenance composite material will start. The material has been tested, and the new railings will be put in pier-wide.

In the past, the group has helped the city with professionally painting the pier with marine-grade paint, replacing educational signs that give visitors an idea of the pier’s views and marine life, introducing fishing line recycling canisters, adding bird netting that helped improve the pier’s water quality and adding holiday lights and a new Christmas tree.

“This is sort of like the beginning of our second act,” Kawas said. “For 10 years, we were PierPride, and now for the next 10 and future generations, we are the San Clemente Pier Conservancy. The next years are very busy and we want to get ready for the 100th birthday, and we want it in its best shape for 2028, it needs a little sprucing up.”

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