VENTURA : Plan to Protect Pier Restaurateur Delayed

Ventura officials on Monday delayed considering special protection for a merchant who plans to open a restaurant on the rain-battered Ventura Pier.

The City Council tabled a proposal to give Eric Wachter financial protection for the restaurant space on the pier that he leased last December.

Badly damaged by a series of storms that pounded the city earlier this year, the pier has been closed for more than two months while work crews strengthen its pilings.

Under terms of the proposed lease that was set aside Monday, the city has six months to complete repairs to the 122-year-old pier following further storm damage. During that time, Wachter would not have to pay rent if pier damage made it impossible for customers to reach the building.

The restaurant is considered crucial to the city’s plan for having the pier attract more visitors to Ventura’s downtown.

“We’ve spent a lot of money (on the pier) during the past storm,” Councilman Jim Monahan said before Monday’s postponement. “We have to do it because of the urgency and the necessity.

“It’s really a crucial point right now in the development of the pier, and I’d like to see it continue,” Monahan said. “Let’s get it open.”

Wachter, who owns Eric Ericsson’s Fish Co. in Ventura, would be able to terminate his lease with a 15-day notice if city officials decide at any point that the pier is too heavily damaged to repair.

After asking for a lease of at least 20 years, Wachter signed a 10-year deal last December that calls for the city to buy out the contract after a decade, should Wachter choose not to renew the agreement.