Rick Kriseman is cutting it close.
The St. Pete mayor is expected to address City Council Thursday at the board’s 3 p.m. meeting. Kriseman will lay out an expectation to have a new Pier completed by 2018, according to a release from his communication’s staff.
That timeline would play it pretty close to the wire for permitting.
According to an email from Thomas B. Gibson, the city’s Engineering and Capital Improvements engineering director, at least one demolition permit is only valid through October of this year.
In an email to Mike Connors on March 24, Gibson tells Connors the city’s Pinellas County Water and Navigation Control Authority permit for Pier demolition and shoreline stabilization is valid until October 26, 2015.
The city pier demolition permit is valid until December 30, 2016. A Southwest Florida Water Management District demolition permit is valid through July 2018.
Other potential setbacks include a disagreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State Historic Preservation Office that “the structures were eligible.”
According to Gibson’s email, the National Parks Service’s Keeper of the Historic register has been asked to respond to the disagreement and make a final decision by April 13.
Kevin O’Kane, who serves as Keeper, will provide a path forward for the City under two scenarios.
The first, and the one indicated by Gibson as most likely, there are no problems because the Keeper sides with the State Historic Preservation Office.
The second option happens if the Keeper sides with the Army Corps of Engineers. In that instance, O’Kane is expected to develop the “USACE additional requirements for the mitigation plan … find out … if a seagrass survey update to verify no impacts is required to issue a permit.”
Officials with the City of St. Pete have not responded with information regarding permitting costs or whether the city can extend existing permits.
