Councilor Charlie Gerdes hosted a town hall-style meeting Monday night to get public input on a jury's rankings for a new Pier design, prior to a Feb. 2 vote.

Gerdes told constitutents who had gathered at Admiral Farragut Academy Chapel that it was important for the public to know that the Coucnil vote is to accept the Pier jury's report and start contract negotiations. 

Of those who spoke, the harshest critics of "The Lens" design were merchants who run retail businesses at the existing city Pier and longtime St. Petersburg residents.

About three-quarters of the people who spoke favored renovating the existing pier or picking a "Mediterranean-style" design for a replacement. The ultra-modern design of "The Lens" did not draw support from most of the people who spoke.

"We are paying for $50 million for a sidewalk over the water," one commenter said. 

 "As a tourist town, we need the connection to identify our character in the city," another commenter said. "I wanted Mediterranean style. (I) feel we are being locked into (a design) that doesn't have any local flavor."

People who spoke in favor of "The Lens" see it as a Pier with a blank canvas. It is something that can be anything the public wants, they said. 

"What this (Pier) can promise is it can draw several thousands of people to the downtown a daily basis," said a Distinct 1 constituent in favor of "The Lens." "It would fulfill what the baseball stadium never did. If it’s developed correctly several thousand of people on a daily basis will be downtown."

How we got here

"I first just want to talk about the facts," Gerdes said before going into specifics about the "The Lens."

Gerdes said it was important for the public to understand how the city is paying for the new Pier, what the existing pier's condition is and what the process is going forward. 

How will it be paid for?

The city has maintained it has $50 million for the entire project. It asked the architects in the Pier competition to submit a plan for a $45 million pier. But the question from many District 1 constituents was: Does the city have the money?

In the 1980s, Gerdes explained, the state created a program for cities and counties to use called the Community Redevelopment Area or CRA. The goal was to "create funding sources to redevelop blighted areas," Gerdes said.

In the redevelopment area, the government entity can use tax increment financing, or TIF, from ad valorem taxes for capital projects. 

According to Gerdes, in downtown St. Pete, a TIF fund was created in the 'Intown' redevelopment area in 2005. The area encompasses roughly 5th Avenue North to 5th Avenue South, west to Tropicana Field. 

The way the TIF fund works is that the property taxes within the redevelopment area are set at the baseline for the fund.

For example, if in 2005 property taxes were $100 million in the redevelopment area that would be the baseline. So in 2006, if that same area brought in $110 million in ad valorem property taxes, $10 million would go into the TIF fund. 

Gerdes said that means those funds collected in the Intown redevelopment area can only by used for projects inside that area. He said that when the city set up the fund in 2005, it projected to have $50 million to spend for the new Pier in seven years. 

"And here we are at 2012 and I can’t tell you the exact numbers, but that it is very close," Gerdes said of the TIF fund generating $50 million. 

Can the existing Pier be saved?

During the Council Pier workshop last week, Mayor Bill Foster maintained that the existing Pier, for public safety, would need to be closed in 2013 or 2014. 

On Monday, Gerdes echoed those comments. The approach and the road surrounding the inverted pyramid is what will be unsafe by 2013-2014, Gerdes said.  

"Back in around 2003 an engineering study was done that concluded that the understructure; the road that goes out (to) the pier and the road that surrounds the pyramid has reached the end of its useful life," Gerdes told the crowd Monday night. 

"When you look underneath the approach, you see very, very serious structural issues," he added. "It is a fact that the structural support and the road surrounding the pyramid will be unsafe in 2013 or 2014."

Foster had questioned the reasoning behind spending $25 million to replace the approach if the existing pier still has a large public subsidy. 

"The inverted pyramid is not going to generate the revenues necessary to eliminate or reduce expenses," Gerdes said. "You are building a road to continue $1.4 million in subsidies."

By 2020, Gerdes said, the inverted pyramid itself would have to be replaced. An independent contractor backed up the city’s assessment of the Pier, which is in the Pier report. 

"It has been established by city staff, independent contractors and the design team that the subsidy associated with 'The Lens' design will be far, far less than what they are for the current building," Gerdes said. 

Several members of the public who spoke said they did not want their tax dollars going toward "The Lens" and said the city should not go into debt to build it. 

Gerdes countered by saying that the only people who are paying for the Pier are property owners who live in the Intown redevelopment area. 

"That money is coming, it exists," he said. "It’s not in the bank, but the property values are set and that money is coming. It’s not like we are borrowing money." 

What's next?

Thursday, Feb. 2, the Council will vote on two aspects of the Pier. First, the council will vote on if it should accept the Pier jury's report/rankings. Second, it will vote to begin contract negotiations with Michael Maltzan Architecture for "The Lens."

The first reading is Feb. 2. The second reading is scheduled for Feb. 16. At Monday night's town hall-style meeting, city staff said the timeline to complete contract negotiations, which would require a public hearing, should be four to five months. 

Gerdes said that there is no plan for a referendum, but if the public wants one, people should visit VoteOnThePier.com and sign the public petition. 

If the group gets 10 percent of St. Pete registered voters to sign the petition, the city is legally obligated to hold a referendum.