King Harbor's Fall Rebuild Ends With a Very Different Seaside Lagoon
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
"It changed it from Seaside Lagoon to a pool; from nine feet deep to five feet, saltwater to fresh. It takes it from Thanksgiving all-the-fixings to meat and potatoes." Harbor Commission chair Ryan Ableman said that in September, as Easy Reader reported, the night before the Redondo Beach City Council voted to send the Lagoon redesign to the California Coastal Commission anyway.
Three King Harbor projects are running at once this fall. Two of them are meant to keep the harbor looking and working the way it has for decades: a new gateway sign and a repaired breakwall. The third changes what one of the harbor's oldest public places actually is. Seeing how differently the city is treating these three explains what the waterfront will look like by the 2028 Olympics.
The King Harbor gateway sign has barely changed in close to 60 years. According to the Daily Breeze, the City Council hired San Pedro Sign Company on August 4 to build and install the replacement. Work was set to begin in August, with completion expected by November.
The paper describes the new sign as looking a lot like the current one, with two updates. The city's newest logo takes the place of the sailboat in the center seal, which has been repainted many times over the decades, and the lettering moves from the old serif type to a sans-serif font. The council approved that design in December 2025, citing safety, durability and visibility. The contract runs through August 2027 to leave room for weather delays, so November is the target date and the contract allows for slippage.
In other words, Redondo Beach is paying to rebuild a landmark mostly as it was, with modern type and its current seal. The breakwall project follows the same approach.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began repairs on the King Harbor breakwall on June 22, 2026, according to the City of Redondo Beach project notice. The work moves along the wall by barge. It began next to the King Harbor Yacht Club docks, followed by crane work from Mole A. The city asks visitors to stay off the breakwall while crews are working and asks boaters to keep clear of the equipment.
You'll notice it most on Mole B, where the construction staging area is. The Army Corps told the city it would make every effort to keep Moonstone Park open and let the Lanakila Outrigger Club keep operating. Parking next to the park may be reduced while those spaces are used for staging. Crews paused over the July 3–5 holiday weekend and on July 25 for the Santa Barbara Race. The project is still expected to wrap up in November 2026.
The schedules for the sign and the breakwall both point to November. If they hold, the harbor's entrance and its seawall will be finished in time for the busiest night of the season on the water, covered below. Both projects bring back something residents already know. The Lagoon project goes a different way.
Seaside Lagoon opened as a public park in 1962. The plan the council sent to the Coastal Commission is officially Phase 1 of a larger revamp the city hopes to complete. Here is how the current Lagoon compares with the proposal, using figures from Easy Reader's coverage of the September meetings:
| Seaside Lagoon today | Plan sent to the Coastal Commission | |
|---|---|---|
| Water | Saltwater | Freshwater |
| Depth | About nine feet, per the Harbor Commission chair | Five feet |
| Bottom | Sand | Concrete past the lowest entry |
| Access | Existing entries | Added ADA ramp into the water |
| Restrooms | Existing facilities | Additional restrooms at the south end |
| Dry areas | Seasonal | Seasonal fencing so the non-water section can be used year-round |
| Estimated annual maintenance | $876,000 | $639,000 |
The plan also adds lap-swim buoys in the deeper end. With the seasonal fencing, the non-water part of the site can stay open to the public all year instead of only during swim season.
The numbers behind the decision were presented at the meetings. Waterfront and Community Services Director Elizabeth Hause reported that the Lagoon was open 104 days in 2026 with 67,727 admissions, and that the city has paid $935,000 in state water-quality fines since 2001. The fines stem from rules on ocean discharge, specifically the chlorine in water leaving the Lagoon. Switching to a recirculating freshwater system takes that discharge out of the picture.
The city staff report for the September 15 meeting says the new system will eliminate or reduce costs tied to continuous seawater circulation, discharge monitoring and regulatory compliance. It will also add new costs for potable water, filtration and maintenance. Staff expects the Lagoon's finances to improve once the work is done.
The decision drew pushback. On August 25, the Harbor Commission voted 7-0 to ask the council to wait, citing concerns about sea-level-rise planning, the shallower depth and the loss of the sand bottom. At the commission's follow-up meeting, Allen Sanford presented a proposal to add a wave pool that would keep a smaller version of the existing wading pool. Sanford co-founded the BeachLife Festival and the California Surf Club next to the Lagoon, and the waterfront business group King Harbor Association endorsed his idea. Public comment over both nights centered on whether a public park should take on a public-private partnership like that.
The council kept its own plan. City Manager Mike Witzansky told the council that after the commission's vote, the design was revised to add a pressure-release valve system at the bottom of the Lagoon and to allow for raising the bulkhead later. "Is it perfect? No," he said, according to Easy Reader, adding that the city is "building the base of our facility above our current tideline."
The city's timeline is clear about when the Lagoon will be back, and less clear about everything before that. On the city's Seaside Lagoon picnic reservation page, the Lagoon is listed as "closed for renovations," visitors are told to check back for updates "during the 2027 season," and picnic areas go on sale May 27, 2028. Based on the city's own booking calendar, the 2026 season, with its 104 days and 67,727 visits, looks like the last one before construction.
Approval hasn't happened yet. The staff report says the September 15 vote only authorized city staff to finish and file the Coastal Development Permit application, and it "would not constitute approval of the CDP itself." Commission staff review the application for completeness, may ask for changes, and then schedule a public hearing. The report does not give a hearing date.
The city is hoping for approval early next year, after which it would hire a contractor and reopen before the 2028 Summer Olympics. "A very quick timeframe, but we think we can do it," Hause said, as reported by Easy Reader.
Without the Lagoon, the harbor's calendar shifts from swimming to sailing and lights. If the November completion dates hold, these winter events will be the first chance to see the harbor with its new sign and finished breakwall.
December 12 is the day the whole harbor comes together. The Pier event ends 90 minutes before the parade starts, which leaves time to walk north to the water. Moonstone Park sits on Mole B, where breakwall crews have been staging all fall. If the Army Corps finishes on time, parade night should be one of the first big evenings at the park with its parking spaces back.
At The Zebrowski Group, we track waterfront projects like these because they affect how homes near the harbor live day to day, from parking on Mole B to what's open each summer. If you own near King Harbor and want to know how the Lagoon timeline and the harbor upgrades could factor into your home's value, request a private market valuation.
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