What would it take to build a public fishing pier?

[Moonpie]

Money of course.

Say a person wanted to build a fishing pier at San LuisPass..............
I'm not asking about the actual construction but what kind of permits, gov't approval, etc does it take to build a for profit public fishing pier?
Where would you begin?

[WestEndAngler]

The State, GLO, ACOE would be my first 3 calls.

[Gilbert]

try and contact the owners of one of the other piers down in galvetraz. I have no idea. Or maybe trying to contact the owners of the San Luis Pass Pier.

[WestEndAngler]

The owner of the new pier going up / being repaired (91st ST) lives across from us in Pirates

[Swells]

I'd look into getting a TPWD grant if possible, even though money is tight these days. Piers are expensive and requires a ton of permits, studies, and so forth. Total costs can run in the range of about 5 to 10 clams, millions of bucks. But you need a conceptual plan before even thinking about getting COE and GLO permits. Having a grant writer, the country, city, and perhaps an investor/operator would be a very good thing, maybe even some federal matching funds or low interest loans - and that takes lots of meetings and time.

Preliminary plans don't take a lot of engineering, but it is good to have somebody on your team that is a marine architect or engineer, since you will need to provide conceptual drawings, with an estimate of length, depth, width, construction type, how it fits into the land-side, parking spaces, and so forth. Are you going to but in a beer and bait and hotdog stand at the end? Nice to get all that together. Follow up on the conceptual drawing with some crude estimates of revenue flow - always follow the money.

At the same time you're getting your team together - and great idea to go in with somebody who has actually done this, extend an invitation to the regional GLO office so you can get somebody familiar with the process and regulations and permits and explain it to y'all. This is important because these folks, mainly biologists and such, can make life much easier, and they know in advance you have a possible proposal and permit on the horizon. They know the folks down at the COE Galveston District personally, so you done good having the GLO on board for at least several meetings.

Finally, and before even filling out a permit form, you need a really slick presenter who can sell the idea to county commissioners, city councils, GLO, and any public entity you're chasing. This means getting on their agenda in accordance with Open Meetings, since anything involving public resources and public funds is subject to the Kleig lights. Unfortunately, sometimes this can involve a lawyer. The minute people think you're sucking the public trough for personal gain, they'll turn on ya in a heartbeat. You want to promote the image of being family fun, safe, revenue neutral, generating tourist trips, positive impacts on the local sales taxes, franchise fee income, whatever you got. Sorry to go long on the answer, folks, but get ready for about one year of meetings before you send off a permit application, and then several years to get-r-done. -sam

[Robalo]

Great response Swells!!

MP:

Ya send a letter to Obama, tell him it needs to be done to help welfare children and tell him it was already earmarked in his fine-azz Stimulus Package and you are done-the money shall flow freely into your hands with no oversight, then take the money and have fun-maybe stick a 2x4 in the sand at the beach just so you can say ya built a pier. You won't need GLO or any other permit, since no oversight goes on as to Federal Spending.

[lurefisher]

I'd look into getting a TPWD grant if possible, even though money is tight these days. Piers are expensive and requires a ton of permits, studies, and so forth. Total costs can run in the range of about 5 to 10 clams, millions of bucks. But you need a conceptual plan before even thinking about getting COE and GLO permits. Having a grant writer, the country, city, and perhaps an investor/operator would be a very good thing, maybe even some federal matching funds or low interest loans - and that takes lots of meetings and time.

Preliminary plans don't take a lot of engineering, but it is good to have somebody on your team that is a marine architect or engineer, since you will need to provide conceptual drawings, with an estimate of length, depth, width, construction type, how it fits into the land-side, parking spaces, and so forth. Are you going to but in a beer and bait and hotdog stand at the end? Nice to get all that together. Follow up on the conceptual drawing with some crude estimates of revenue flow - always follow the money.

At the same time you're getting your team together - and great idea to go in with somebody who has actually done this, extend an invitation to the regional GLO office so you can get somebody familiar with the process and regulations and permits and explain it to y'all. This is important because these folks, mainly biologists and such, can make life much easier, and they know in advance you have a possible proposal and permit on the horizon. They know the folks down at the COE Galveston District personally, so you done good having the GLO on board for at least several meetings.

Finally, and before even filling out a permit form, you need a really slick presenter who can sell the idea to county commissioners, city councils, GLO, and any public entity you're chasing. This means getting on their agenda in accordance with Open Meetings, since anything involving public resources and public funds is subject to the Kleig lights. Unfortunately, sometimes this can involve a lawyer. The minute people think you're sucking the public trough for personal gain, they'll turn on ya in a heartbeat. You want to promote the image of being family fun, safe, revenue neutral, generating tourist trips, positive impacts on the local sales taxes, franchise fee income, whatever you got. Sorry to go long on the answer, folks, but get ready for about one year of meetings before you send off a permit application, and then several years to get-r-done. -sam

Good posting,sounds like you need to be the White shirt guy on this one !

[R C]

I luv potlickin pilings wading.

Not much left of Sams pilings, but we still pull flounder from them. (pic from this Tuesday)

I'd like to see any stucture put in the surf,.....even something so simple as two pilings with some corrugated bulkhead material between them perpendicular to the beach would go along way to attracting fish. Scatter a few up and down the coast would be fish magnets.

Or,.....we could also get JT drunk and bet him he can't drive his truck to the second sandbar. ,........we could call it JT's reef.

[Swells]

Good posting,sounds like you need to be the White shirt guy on this one !

LOL, you don't know me very good ... I show up smellin' of beer and dead fish with the 3-day beard and the 2-day old t-shirt that says "Got Crabs?"

Joking ... I'm way down south here by SPI but I'd love to help. Not familiar with the area you want to put in a fishing pier. Location is everything, and there's a big difference between a Gulf-side pier and a bay pier, as y'all know. A bay pier can be done for about a 10th of the cost per linear foot! You can use wood instead of pre-stressed concrete or whatever. The folks down in Port Aransas put in several hundred feet of new fishing and birding boardwalks.

If you mean something like Bob Hall Pier down yonder, whoa, that would definitely be a challenge. Robalo, I believe the Fed actually built that pier and gave it to Corpus Christi or something, not likely today. But never tell a Texan they cain't do it, because we'll prove ya wrong because we're ornery!

[Robalo]

Agree Swells. Great responses-sounds like you been a time or teo around the pier block!!

[kenny]

They told the fellow that owned the SLP pier, not only could he not rebuild, but he had to remove what was left. There'll be no pier there!

[Moe]

It's possible to sk the count/state to supply old concrete higways/roads that are being replaced. They did that in New Orleans and used some of the reclaimed bridge concrete to make reefs from which to catch fish from the pier.