Pinellas News

Pier mediation ordered in lawsuit ahead of St. Pete council vote

TBO.com
Published: December 6, 2012

A judge's order for mediation in a related lawsuit threatens to delay a St. Petersburg City Council vote today on allocating $5.4 million to begin work on a new Pier.

At a hearing Wednesday, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Amy Williams ordered the city and a citizens group led by former City Councilwoman Kathleen Ford to receive mediation in her lawsuit against the city that seeks a public referendum on the $50 million project.

The sides must meet with a mediator within 60 days to come up with ballot language for a possible referendum.

"I think it certainly clarified the issues it's what we expected and we look forward to working with the city attorneys to come up with a proposal ballot language we can both agree on and get this issue resolved," Ford said.

Ford's group said it had about 15,000 signatures requesting a public vote, but the city attorney said he had not yet seen the petition. The judge gave the group until Dec. 12 to present the petition.

With Williams' ruling as a backdrop, city council plans to hear public comment and vote to allocate funds to allow Michael Maltzan Architecture and Skanska USA Builders to move forward with pre-construction work.

Although some city council members considered a delay in the process, Mayor Bill Foster said the mediation order doesn't change things.

"You go forward with the plan," said Mayor Bill Foster. "Nothing has changed. The court has not ordered that we stop the process. I think we go forward with the process. It's been a good process."

The city will go into mediation with good faith, Foster said, but keeping the existing structure is too expensive.

"The idea of saving this 40-year-old inverted pyramid sitting on a 90-year-old pier structure it's out of the question," Foster said.

The city council voted 7-1 in 2010 to demolish the Pier, a landmark structure on the downtown waterfront since it was constructed in 1973, after engineers determined the 1,000-plus pilings undergirding the approach were coming to the end of their useful life.

The council opted for Maltzen's Lens design in February, although updated plans – based on public input – were unveiled at a workshop Tuesday. A special tax for the district this year will provide the city a one-time funding of $50 million for the project.

Public comment is slated to begin about 10:30 a.m. at the city hall, 175 Fifth St. N.

News Channel 8 reporter Lauren Mayk contributed to this report.