Please keep the Pier open until the people have voted.

Members of Saint Petersburg City Council

Please keep the Pier open through the August election and the summer tourist season to maintain a Plan B should the voters not support the Lens or should permits prove impossible to obtain.

Mayor Baker said...
"A few years ago we set aside $50 million to replace the decayed pilings under the pier road. The pilings under the inverted pyramid do not need to be replaced; therefore the inverted pyramid does not have to be torn down. Any option chosen must come at a cost within the city's capital budget." Tampa Bay Times column, Make it Iconic and fun, Jan. 14, 2012


City council and the county commission were placed in an impossible position with a $50 million budget and two choices that both failed to meet the plan goals and fall within the budget. You were given an apples to oranges choice of an $87 million Pier with a 150 foot wide approach for vehicle access and parking; or Phase I of the Lens, basically a narrow sidewalk with a viewing area that barely met the budget but would cost $150 million to complete. We don't need a world wide competition to find a solution. We can hit the pause button and find a compromise that gives residents a fun place and maintains an iconic symbol of our city.

Please allow citizens a chance to develop a waterfront master plan with options to reuse, replace or eliminate the pier. To keep those options open we need to stop spending money and preserve the inverted pyramid, a structure valued at $35-$45 million. It makes sense to keep pier businesses open during the planning process.

Please consider rebuilding the pier within standards set for the Lens. A 20-30 foot wide sidewalk instead of 150 foot roadway, a small ground floor, new windows and upgrades to the pyramid would give us a much larger and better version of the Lens with air conditioned space. It would have less functionality than the current pier but much more than the Lens. And it is an iconic structure already well known and closely associated with Saint Petersburg. 
Can it be done for under $10 million? If we keep the cost down we can avoid the expense of borrowing and have money left over for other needs downtown like the underutilized Martin Luther King Street Business District, bike paths, bus shelters and a transit terminal.

The city made a mistake a few years ago by supporting demolition of the 600 block of Central Avenue. Businesses were closed but not demolished, leaving an eyesore in the heart of downtown. Once employees are fired, equipment auctioned off and customers lost to competitors it is very hard to reopen those businesses and new businesses must be found. The city turned it around. Today that block stands as a success story.
The city once had a need to close the Pier in May and demolish it in August so that the Lens could be built in the very same place. Now that project should be put on hold until we voters make the decision. Permit applications have not succeeded in obtaining permits. There is no need to demolish the pier so there is no immediate need to close it.

Please do the right thing for our city.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/make-it-iconic-and-fun/1210479

cc Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners