Plan Would Bring Quarter-Mile-Long Fishing Pier to Cocoa Beach

COCOA BEACH — Tim Chastain envisions a downtown municipal fishing pier extending a quarter-mile across the Atlantic Ocean waves, offering an aquatic platform for fishermen, walkers, sightseers and rocket-launch spectators.

This 1,301-foot concrete structure at an undetermined location could cost $8 million to $9 million, he estimates. If environmental permitting and municipal-revenue bonds are secured, construction could start in 2017.

Chastain projects this city-operated pier would draw enough foot traffic from tourists and locals — and generate enough revenue from admission fees and concession sales — to be economically feasible.

Chastain owns Fin Expeditions, a Banana River kayak eco-tour company, and he is a past chairman of the Surfrider Foundation’s Cocoa Beach chapter. He floated his fishing-pier idea to City Commission candidates during the fall campaign, and he made a formal presentation during a Dec. 17 workshop.

“Say that we have 3.2 million visitors in the Cocoa Beach area. We put a city pier in. If you grab two out of 10, well that would be 740,000 people into the downtown area based on the pull of the pier,” Tim Chastain told commissioners.

Commissioner Tim Tumulty called the proposal “very interesting stuff,” but no discussion of substance occurred.

Chastain is crafting economic models and researching ocean-pier details, and he hopes to present his findings during a February City Commission meeting.

Chastain examined 35 piers across Florida, then based his research on three examples:

• Jacksonville Beach Fishing Pier, built in 2004

• M.B. Miller Pier County Pier in Panama City Beach, built in 2008

• Russell-Fields Pier in Panama City Beach, built in 2009

City Manager Bob Majka worked in Panama City-area governments for 23 years before moving to Brevard County this fall. He said Chastain’s idea is a grassroots concept, and City Hall staffers have not scrutinized the proposal.

“In Panama City Beach, with two municipal piers within a close proximity to each other, the model there works. But you need to look at, is it financially viable?” Majka asked.

“The city isn’t in position to lay out $10 million to build a pier and use general-fund revenue to support that. The pier would have to be self-supporting. We’d be interested in looking at the data he’s compiling,” he said.

Lori Stottler is general manager of the Cocoa Beach Pier, a wooden 800-foot structure built in 1962, about 3.5 miles north of downtown. She said she does not want to be “a buzzkill,” but she warned that pier expenses like liability insurance and piling maintenance may be higher than anticipated.

“There is a lot of cost associated with having a pier — which we know very well. It all sounds great in theory. But when you have to run one day-to-day, with all the maintenance it entails, it’s a different thing entirely,” Stottler said.

“Still, I think it’s great that people are coming up with new ideas for Cocoa Beach. With the space industry changing, tourism plays a more pivotal role in our economy,” she said.

Chastain said the concrete municipal pier would be designed to withstand hurricanes and fierce weather.

“At these modern-built piers, maintenance and post-storm issues are treated as a nuisance,” he said.

John Hearin is a Florida Tech coastal engineer who serves as vice chairman of the Surfrider Foundation’s Cocoa Beach chapter.

He called the pier proposal a great idea, and he said the Florida Department of Environmental Protection may approve the project.

“Permitting would be an issue, but it is doable. It’s very doable — especially if you have the funding,” Hearin said.

Chastain said he selected the 1,301-foot length because it would make the Cocoa Beach pier 1 foot longer than the Jacksonville Beach Fishing Pier.