In the aftermath of 150 feet of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf falling into the ocean on Dec. 23—closing the iconic wooden structure for 10 days—questions are still swirling about whether the collapse was preventable.
And with all eyes on Santa Cruz and our unique but battered wharf—who is to blame?
In the first days city staff members blamed the jumbo swell that propelled Mavericks to record heights, litigation from a group called Don’t Morph the Wharf and even bird nests preventing repairs.
“We’ll never know for sure but we do know that the delays of our master plan, largely due to lawsuits against the city that slowed down those important investments, have left our wharf more vulnerable,” City Manager Matt Huffaker said in a press conference on Dec. 27. In an interview, Huffaker added that if the plan had gone ahead, the western walkway, a planned protective barrier dropped by the city, would have been operational in the “early 2020s.”
Gillian Greensite of Don’t Morph the Wharf, who achieved the removal of the western walkway and a 40-foot-high building at the end of the wharf through a successful California Environmental Quality Act case against the city, blamed the city for not repairing the pilings at the end of the wharf sooner and for blaming her.
And the California Coastal Commission is blamed for everything.
For Dan Buecher, who spent many years working on the wharf and then served as wharf supervisor from 1993 to 2009, all the blame was a sign of the times.
“It’s the current world we live in. That’s what it seems people think they have to do, but it’s working together that is the best way, and probably everybody got a part of the right answer. So in the end, it’ll be pulled together by whoever builds it,” he said.
Not that he’s a saint. Back in his day, they were behind on the pillings too. He had a small crew of seven to eight workers and 5% of the pilings needed repair.
Those pilings that everyone is up in arms about needing to be replaced, Buecher says, are also habitats for worms and urchins and thousands of species below the wharf, eating away at the livelihoods of the people above, while feeding the lackadaisical sea lion population and thus contributing to what everyone loves about the wharf.
Nonetheless, whether they ought to have or not, the pilings at the end of the wharf broke off and the harmony of the wharf was shattered, as all businesses closed and workers fell behind on rent.
Since at least 2013, the area that collapsed was known to have damaged pilings that had been recommended for replacement, including 14 original pilings from 1914. Some of these pilings were under the Dolphin restaurant, which was supported by “a-frames,” load-bearing wooden beams, before storm damage in late 2023 doomed the eatery.
The Reasons
Buecher was in Roseville when he saw footage of the floating bathroom.
“I didn’t believe it,” Buecher said in a phone interview. But the more he thought about it, the more he believed that the collapse had to “have been a combination of various things.”
According to Buecher, a major factor in the collapse was the wave action intensifying at the end of the wharf because the pilings there are the longest. Estimates put the waves at 20 to 30 feet high amid a record third year of storms that left piers out of service along the coast.
The beams that the sea lions sleep on further direct wave energy upward, lifting the deck from the piles.
When asked about the issue of the Coastal Commission mandating a 300-foot bird nesting buffer for major construction on the wharf like sinking new piles, Buecher remembers how they used to do it.
“No, the birds were never really a concern. We would maneuver the animals away but you had to maintain it [the wharf],” he said.
This would be news to the staff of the wharf and the Coastal Commission, who strictly follow permits that dictate when and where work can get done following the Coastal Act of 1972.
Staff of the Commission were surprised that the city now seeks to revise a set of agreements they made in 2021 and in February 2024 to make it easier for wharf repairs to get done.
The city and the Coastal Commission are now in discussions to expand the amount of time the wharf staff has to do repairs each year, according to Mayor Fred Keeley. But as of last February, it was only recommended, not required, to avoid construction between March and September.
Restrictions still apply: a biologist must be present during construction and work can only occur within a 500-foot radius of an identified occupied nest for four hours a day for three consecutive days.
“The Coastal Commission wants to work with the city of Santa Cruz to make sure that this repair maintenance work gets done as we have for years now,” said Joshua Smith, spokesman for the Commission. The Commission has approved multiple emergency repairs on the wharf in past years on behalf of the city.
The Future?
After agreeing to settle the lawsuit with Don’t Morph the Wharf in 2024 without the western walkway, the city was awarded $8.9 million from the Coastal Conservancy to complete the projects such as the eastern promenade, new boat landings, entry gates and a welcome sign. The project is underway, if temporarily delayed, according to Development Manager David McCormic.
On the other hand, the work to build a protective barrier on the western side of the wharf is back to square one after its defeat, McCormic said. Meaning the wharf is vulnerable to more big waves.
In the meantime, the wharf will have to soldier on under its normal repair process. A team of 12 people is working to fix the wharf for its 20 businesses, 400 employees and 10% of the city’s restaurant workforce. Despite this the wharf is not a money maker, losing $1.7 million last year.
Not surprisingly there is a backlog of repair projects and maintenance needed on the wharf. This deferred maintenance is estimated at $14 million.
This explains why the piles at the end of the wharf were neglected. More valuable piles under the roadway and businesses were prioritized first as laid out in the 2014 Engineering Report, leaving the lanky end of the wharf without repairs.
“That work was really in the queue,” Parks and Recreation Director Tony Elliot said. “And then we got hit by the storms in 2023 and 2024, so that damaged the end of the wharf, which enabled us to get federal and state dollars to rebuild the end of the wharf.”
Before the wharf collapse, the repairs were expected to cost $3 million. Now costs will be significantly higher if the end of the wharf is rebuilt at all.
But Mark Gilbert, who owns Firefish Grill and Woodies Cafe on the wharf, wanted to build a new Dolphin restaurant but could never get the building off the ground despite growing the Dolphin’s sales by threefold with the city getting a percentage. He is convinced a new Dolphin with new pilings under it might have made a difference.
“I would have fought the Coastal Commission that only allowed us to do this during the winter, because it’s a bunch of crap,” Gilbert said. “And I probably would have gotten year-round construction because nobody gives a crap, because it’s not your money out there.”
The city will also look to recoup lost revenues that businesses on the wharf lost during those 10 days around the holidays by “modification of lease terms” and seeking state and federal money, according to McCormic. Businesses on the wharf have so far been offered a small business loan, owners said. Employees making less than 80% of the Average Median Income are eligible for a $500 gift card through the Community Bridges charity.
Gilbert blames Don’t Morph the Wharf for screwing everything up because his efforts to open a new restaurant at the end of the wharf were stalled while “everything was tied up in litigation.”
Gilbert proposed three restaurants on the site of the Dolphin, including a whale-shaped restaurant which never advanced. On Jan. 14 his lease agreement for a redo of the Miramar restaurant will come before the City Council in closed session.
Gilbert expects more delays because of the emergency state of the wharf but his patience is running short.
“If it gets delayed anymore, I’m just going to bow out,” Gilbert said. “I bought the Dolphin in 2008 to put a new building there. It’s 2025 now, 17 years in April. A new building would have been good. It would have shored up everything out there.”
Buecher wants people in the coming months to think about what the wharf is, and how the ocean, the sea lions, the family businesses, the city and the Coastal Commission can be greater than the sum of their pillings.
“Because if people say what holds the wharf up is in the pilings, no, it’s the love of the wharf,” Buecher said. “The community loves the wharf and wants to have it and support it. And so do new generations every 20 years. I still think it’s a big draw to the city. I love it. My family loves it. My children have moved away. They come back to go there.”
