It’s been more than two years since strong storms damaged part of the Cayucos Pier.
“So, it left 15 feet of the pier hanging over the water, and we eventually got that removed,” said District 2 Supervisor Bruce Gibson.
The Cayucos Pier stretched 950 feet when it opened in 1872. After the storm-damaged end of the pier and its pilings were removed, the landmark is now shorter.
Paso Robles resident, Diane Carroll, told KSBY News her family frequents Cayucos and remembers the storms.
“During the storms of 2024, we’d watch, see how the waves came all the way up to the swing sets and we saw the destruction of the pier and how they had to block it off so that people wouldn’t walk on it because it was deemed unsafe,” Carroll said.
But repairs are coming.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Sept. 29 unanimously approved a budget adjustment, allocating $568,127 to fund the restoration project.
Gibson said the pier was rehabilitated in 2015 and funded through insurance money. He said this latest restoration effort will also be covered by insurance.
“The piece that we’re doing now is the design and that’s covered by insurance money and I understand that we have enough in the way of insurance to actually cover the construction once we get into that," Gibson said.
The project is in the early design phase. Once designs are finalized, work will begin to secure a contractor.
Carroll said her family used to fish off of the pier almost every weekend and would like to see it return to its original state.
“I think that's a good idea. You know this pier is often used by all the locals and we’ve met a lot of people from Fresno and the valley area who also fish or just enjoy eating a meal on there and so yeah I think it would be a really good idea," Carroll said.
Gibson said the community-purchased plaques that were at the end of the pier will be reinstalled when the pier is restored.
“We expect construction to start sometime after the rainy season, so sometime maybe late spring or into the summer of 2027," Gibson said.
