St. Pete Pier redevelopment

[DShenise]

St. Pete's port isn't west of the Skyway.

[Jasonhouse]

An exact location has not yet been determined beyond west of the Skyway bridge, within the offshore Hillsborough County line, which encompasses Egmont Key. Although the docks might be built within Hillsborough, the supporting infrastructure, plus new development for shops, restaurants and hotels, would fall in Pinellas.

I would love to know where that would occur that wouldn't cause riots or draw the ire of environmental regulators.

And yeah, the bill wouldn't be cheap either.

[DShenise]

As someone who's canoed, boated, snorkeled, and waded most of the waters in southern Pinellas, its all incredibly shallow and would require a huge environmental impact.

[HARTride 2012]

http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/...ource=nletter-

[Jasonhouse]

lol... Typical.

[ThatFloridaDude]

Originally Posted by HARTride 2012

http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/...ource=nletter-

The lens is ok.

[TampaMike]

Originally Posted by ThatFloridaDude

The lens is ok.

TFD, I'm mostly optimistic and positive on almost everything on here, but I can even agree that this thing sucks. Heck, they've taken out the only component that would had attracted anyone to venture far out on the $50 million waste.

[ThatFloridaDude]

Originally Posted by TampaMike

TFD, I'm mostly optimistic and positive on almost everything on here, but I can even agree that this thing sucks. Heck, they've taken out the only component that would had attracted anyone to venture far out on the $50 million waste.

Tampa Mike, my post was pure sarcasm

It does suck, hence me posting the shaking head smiley. I have to honestly say I do not see what is wrong with the upside down pyramid, nor do I see how any of the rendering or redevelopment will do what the pyramid isn't already doing!

[Jasonhouse]

Surprised that no one posted this...


Responding to public complaints, Pier designers make changes to their plans

By Waveney Ann Moore,
Tampa Bay Times Staff Writer
Posted: Jul 18, 2012 10:05 PM

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgo...-plans/1241054


Excerpt from the article...

ST. PETERSBURG — As debate about the city's new Pier intensifies, designers of the proposed waterfront icon have come up with changes in a bid to quell widespread criticism of artistic indulgence.

They've listened to the concerns, said Lisa Wannemacher, local partner of the California-based Michael Maltzan Architecture team that conceived the design known as the Lens.

"What we heard is, give us opportunities for food, shade and shelter. And so what we have tried to do is to provide multiple opportunities for food, multiple opportunities for shade and multiple opportunities for shelter," Wannemacher said.

There also will be more seating, especially along the looping bridges detractors have labeled a sidewalk to nowhere. More robust wave attenuation panels are also proposed to make the inner harbor safer. Plans are being offered for the area in the uplands known as the Hub, with a waterfront restaurant, a large public square to accommodate a temporary market, community events, food truck rallies and other programs. There also will be a boardwalk. The Pier itself will have a larger area for food and entertainment.

The modifications follow intense discussions between the design team and city staff...

Click the link above to read the rest.

[Jasonhouse]

This is getting interesting.




Pier referendum supporters close in on goal, even as plans for Lens move forward


By Waveney Ann Moore and Mark Puente,
Tampa Bay Times Staff Writers
In Print: Wednesday, July 18, 2012

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgo...s-move/1240789


Excerpt from the article...

ST. PETERSBURG — The group that has been fighting for a vote on the city's Pier using Facebook, postage-paid petitions, drop boxes and robocalls appears to be winning its campaign.

The Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office said Tuesday it had verified 12,037 signatures from 14,401 petitions submitted by voteonthepier.com. A spokeswoman said more than 5,000 were yet to be processed.

Voteonthepier, which wants to save the current Pier and halt plans for its $50 million replacement, is aiming for 15,652 petitions, representing 10 percent of residents registered to vote in the city's last general election.

Meanwhile, the process to build the new Pier, known as the Lens, continues. Tuesday, a city committee selected Skanska USA Building, a worldwide construction and project manager with an office in Tampa, to manage the project.

The company will advise the architect and keep the project on time and budget.

Public works administrator Mike Connors, development director Chris Ballestra and building official Rick Dunn each ranked Skanska the top firm of four finalists.

Connors said the city will now negotiate the cost.

Meanwhile, it will be up to City Council members to decide whether to put a Pier question on the ballot. The subject is on Thursday's agenda.

Click the link above to read the rest.

[Jasonhouse]

And the Times has certainly chosen sides. Not sure why.



Council fails leadership test on Pier

A Tampa Bay Times Editorial
In Print: Saturday, July 21, 2012


http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/edit...cle1241377.ece

Democracy is not well served when a handful of well-financed activists with an impossible demand can persuade St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster and five City Council members to derail a public project informed by years of public input. The best hope now for the future of the Pier is that at least one more council member will come to realize it is not possible to write a question for the November ballot that will appease critics and provide a viable path forward. The council already has a clear path; it just needs the political courage to follow it.

Council members Bill Dudley, Charlie Gerdes, Steve Kornell, Wengay Newton and Karl Nurse voted Thursday to consider placing one or more still-undetermined questions before voters on what to do with the Pier. The irony, of course, is the movement that triggered the council's 5-3 vote — the voteonthepier.com group that's gathered an estimated 20,000 petition signatures seeking to save the inverted pyramid — has no realistic hope of actually seeing its vision fulfilled.

Gerdes and Kornell say they won't support putting the petition's actual language on the ballot because saving the inverted pyramid would be fiscally indefensible — costing at least $74 million, or $24 million more than the city has set aside in future tax proceeds for the project. Even Newton, the group's biggest champion, said he didn't care so much what was on the ballot, just that voters have a say.

But there's the rub. For four years, residents have been telling the city what they thought. A citizen advisory group held 63 public meetings; the council did its own study with citizen input; and an international design competition and the resulting design process provides the opportunity for even more public input. All along it's been clear that any solution to such a complex problem would always require leadership from City Hall.

Council members Leslie Curran, Jeff Danner and Jim Kennedy displayed that leadership by voting to stay the course. As Kennedy noted, no referendum will change the fact that the 90-year-old concrete pier approach and pier head is deteriorating and set for condemnation in two years; or that the aging pyramid requires an annual operating subsidy of at least $1.5 million. Nor can a ballot question suddenly illuminate an option that unites the city more than the still-evolving design known as the Lens. Already architect Michael Maltzan and his team have responded to public input by adding more shade and public amenities. More positive changes are expected.

Curran, Danner and Kennedy understand that the best way to serve the public now is to focus on perfecting the Lens concept for future generations, not rehashing the same argument of the last four years. Just one more council member needs to display that same leadership.

[Jasonhouse]

Gerdes and Kornell say they won't support putting the petition's actual language on the ballot because saving the inverted pyramid would be fiscally indefensible — costing at least $74 million, or $24 million more than the city has set aside in future tax proceeds for the project.

The ballot question should ask voters to rank the following according to preference...

A) Do you support spending up to $74 million to renovate and improve the existing pier?

B) Or you support spending up to $140 million to replace the pier with the 'Lens' design?

C) Or spend the minimal amount to tear down the current pier and replace with a wooden fishing pier.


Top choice wins.

[smiley]

They chose sides because Foster is a a mayor for 1912 not 2012.

[TPAMAN]

Skanska USA wins contract to build new St. Pete pier
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Date: Friday, October 5, 2012, 7:01am EDT
Enlarge Image


The St. Petersburg City Council approved Skanska USA Builders as the contractor to work on the $50 million “Lens” pier project with a 6 to 2 vote.

The current pier design, known as the "inverted pyramid," is scheduled to close by the end of May in 2013 and demolition will commence in the fall, WTSP said. Mayor Bill Foster announced in September that the city will go forward with its plan to build the project unless a judge order the city to halt it, WTSP said.

A meeting to discuss the issue is scheduled for December. In August, controversy surrounded the future of the pier project after a petition was put forward by concerned citizens asking for a public vote on the design. The city council voted against putting the design to a public vote.

[Jasonhouse]

Mayor Bill Foster announced in September that the city will go forward with its plan to build the project unless a judge order the city to halt it

What Foster is doing here is known as 'prescience'.

[smiley]

st. pete exists just to make tampa look good.

[Jasonhouse]

^I'm not seeing how this project with questionable execution helps in that regard.

[smiley]

The buffoonish St. Pete govt is about the only thing that could make tampa's slightly less buffoonish govt look ok.