A professional arborist is raising some potential problems with plans to create a “coastal thicket” in the Pier Park design concept.
According to Joe Samnik, a consulting arborist in the business for 47 years, for every square foot of canopy foliage there would need to be two cubic feet of soil to support the plant’s root structure and growth.
“If you stop to do the calculations, two cubic feet of soil for every square foot of mature canopy is one hell of a lot of dirt,” Samnik said.
In addition to the logistics and cost of hauling that much soil into a man-made structure over the water, Samnik worries about the safety of people visiting the Pier. According to his pro-bono analysis of the Pier Park concept, trees without enough space to properly root are at risk of falling.
Those same trees, Samnik explained, are also constantly looking for air. He said the second the roots find a weakness in the concrete they grow right through. That’s something he said could create tripping hazards along walkways.
“That’s why street trees are a problem,” he said.
Samnik also questions the use of fertilizer and pesticide on the robust landscaping planned for Pier Park.
“The landscape concept must have drainage. They cannot build a self-contained box or else everything will rot,” Samnik explained.
By that reasoning, Samnik worries that the drainage would wind up in the Bay.
Samnik was contacted by an activist supporting Destination St. Pete Pier, Robert Neff. Neff has been frequently posting information about the failures of the Pier Park design and the city’s Pier selection process as a whole. Samnik agreed to review the Pier Park concept at no cost.
“I just don’t see this working,” he told SaintPetersblog.
Samnik lives and works in Palm Harbor. He said he has no dog in this fight and doesn’t really care what happens with the new Pier.
“I’m looking at this from a horticultural science perspective,” he said. “If you said you’d give me a million dollars to name the players involved, I couldn’t do it.”
Samnik’s bio is impressive. He’s spent nearly five decades as a tree doctor of sorts and is an expert in his field. He’s certified to teach landscape architects.
Yet the problems he describes have been mitigated in other projects. Highline Park in New York City, for example, is an over-land walkway that contains plenty of foliage and trees and even grass. That project has been a huge success.
And Pier Park has a world-class landscape architecture firm working on the project – Ken Smith Landscape Architecture. That firm was commissioned to do landscape work at the El Toro Marine Base in Orange County, Calif., and the World One Tower in Mumbai.
But the firm is based in New York. That’s a problem, according to Samnik.
“We don’t get that layer of white stuff like they do,” Samnik said referring to snow. “That kills so much bacteria that thrives in Florida.”
City Council will decide whether to approve the Pier Selection Committee’s ranking of Pier Park at the top followed by Destination St. Pete Pier and Alma at their meeting Thursday.
Pro-Destination St. Pete Pier supporters are expected to flood the meeting urging Council to reject the ranking. At least one Council member is on board with that choice. Wengay Newton, a longtime proponent of saving the inverted pyramid, will ask the board to consider holding a Special Election to let voters decide whether they want Destination St. Pete Pier or “a park.”
Those supporters are expected to cite results from several public surveys showing overwhelming support for Destination St. Pete Pier and another released just this week showing more than 60 percent of respondents want the city to put the Pier issue to a voter referendum.
This latest analysis from a consulting arborist is likely to enter the debate as well.
