The District of Sechelt will spend up to $100,000 from the 2012 budget on studies and new concept designs for the Davis Bay Wharf.
Council earmarked the sum during their April 4 council meeting after hearing from the community that change is needed.
"The various community groups in Davis Bay, the community associations, the wharf group and the Davis Bay Parkway Society - they have been in front of us both personally and at council encouraging that we expand and improve the wharf," said Mayor John Henderson.
He said the call for studies and designs is just a preliminary step towards finding out what's possible at the site.
"Do we widen the wharf? Do we put in an area that's reserved for kids to jump into the ocean while people are crabbing somewhere else? It's the first steps of really enhancing what we already have," he said.
Henderson isn't sure who will do the work council is prepared to pay for.
"What we've done is essentially signified to staff that we're prepared to put that kind of money into a project like this and their first job from that is to come back with recommendations of whether we can do it internally or not," Henderson said. "We put an amount in there to give staff guidance on the priority and the scope of the work that we anticipate, and they'll come back to us presumably in the next month or two."
The well-known Davis Bay pier is part of the Davis Bay Boulevard and the strip of waterfront the Davis Bay Parkway Society is trying to protect and enhance.
Earlier this year members of the parkway society and the Davis Bay - Wilson Creek - Selma Park Community Association teamed up to establish Wharf Rats, a group to spearhead an initiative to restore the wharf.
The group calls the pier Sechelt's most recognized landmark and they want to see it fixed up and expanded with a swim float, gazebo and covered wharf area.
They presented their plan to council on Jan. 25, and this week Wharf Rats' member Margaret Pearson was pleased to hear council has made the wharf a priority.
"We are really happy they are getting behind us. It's just wonderful" Pearson said.
She said her group is standing by with a donation of a gazebo for the wharf when the time is right, and the community association is also willing to sell planks for a wharf expansion/upgrade if needed in the future.
