66 Years in the Making: Redondo Beach chooses boat launch spot in south harbor
by Garth Meyer
It began six years after the Korean War. It was pre-Moon Landing, pre-Los Angeles Lakers, though not before The Bullpen: the effort to put a boat launch in King Harbor.
It concluded, or took an unprecedented step to do so, Nov. 4 when the Redondo Beach city council approved a site and directed staff to draw up a grant application, predetermined to fund the project.
The unanimous vote puts the ramp between R10 Social House and Riviera Mexican Cantina, at a 45-degree angle into the water.
No city commercial property would be affected.
The vote concludes the latest push for an effort that first began in 1959, and eventually encompassed more than 19 potential locations. The new work stemmed from the city’s Harbor Amenities Plan set forth in 2021 in the aftermath of the failed CenterCal project.
A city study group chose Mole D as the best area for a boat launch, and consultants Moffatt & Nichol were hired to survey storm surges and adverse wave conditions, as well as conduct a demand study – to be sure the ramp would get used.
SWA landscape architects zeroed in on four options for it in Mole D (the south harbor area adjacent to International Boardwalk), held a public input session in September, then created a fifth option with Moffatt & Nichol, as a compromise: Option E – which the council chose, as did the Harbor Commission Oct. 13, unanimously as well. The Harbor Patrol endorsed it too.
City Manager Mike Witzansky tallied the number of boat launch meetings he has sat in on in his 20 years with Redondo Beach: about 40.
“This is the umpteenth attempt to get a grant application in the hopper. We’ve been close a few times,” he said. “(The fact that) this option preserves all existing commercial spaces was not anticipated when we came into this process a couple years ago.”
The boat launch would be paid for by the state Division of Boating & Waterways. Its deadline to apply for a new grant is next February, which requires a preferred site.
“We finally have crossed the milestone of selecting a location,” said City Councilman Chadwick Castle, who was born 13 years after the project began.
If all goes as planned, the boat ramp would be designed next year and built in 2027. ER