By Jason Islas
Lookout Staff

March 29, 2012 -- Pedestrians and cars will no longer have to jockey for space on the Santa Monica Pier ramp after the City Council on Tuesday gave staff its unanimous blessing to remove parking from the landmark's wooden deck.

Citing safety concerns and the possibility of new uses for the space, City staff presented the Council with a proposal to remove some 270 parking spaces and relocate them to a parking structure to be built in the parking lot just north of the pier.

“We need to get the cars off the car deck,” said Council member Kevin McKeown, calling the use of pier space as a parking lot “an anachronism.”

McKeown, however, thought the proposed site for replacing the parking, currently used by the City's Beach Maintenance group, was not ideal.

“I don't know if that's the right spot for it,” he said.

While other members agreed the parking should be removed, they argued that it should be replaced close to the pier.

Not only could access to the Pier be restricted by less parking, so could access to the beach, said Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis..

The pier, as well as the beach, she said, is one of few places visitors can frequent for a relatively low cost. She added that people are going to drive and need a place to park their vehicles.

“If we don't do it right,” she said, “it could have a very negative impact.”

Mayor Richard Bloom echoed Davis' contention, adding that the parking structure built should be “great” and that, in this case, a great design would make the structure disappear.

Representatives of Pier businesses, including Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Rusty's Surf Ranch and Pacific Park, all turned out to support the removal of parking from the pier deck.

They also called for the City to go one step further and use the opportunity to add spaces, not just replace the 270, in the new parking structure.

A preliminary discussion, however, suggested that due to limits placed on the parking structure's size, it may not be possible to add many spaces.

The discussion is in its preliminary stages, but the council's go-ahead paves the way to select a design consultant “to provide initial design and cost estimate” by this summer.

If all goes according to plan, a design could go before the Council by fall.