St. Pete residents cast thousands of votes in a non-binding survey for seven design proposals for the St. Pete Pier over the past couple weeks, and the results are in.
The winner, with 10,751 votes, 6,306 of them verified residents of the city, is Destination St. Pete Pier, the one where the original inverted pyramid thingy pokes out through a hole in a big slab of concrete (there's also supposed to be a nifty waterfall, but we're not allowed to talk about that yet).
Those who took the survey were asked to pick up to three designs they liked the bestest.
Ben Kirby, a spokesman for Mayor Rick Kriseman, reminded us that the tally doesn't take into consideration how people ranked the designs. So Destination St. Pete Pier, assembled by the St. Pete Design Group, could have been more than 10,000 people's third choice. Ya never know.
None of the other designs cracked 5,000 votes, aside from Pier Park, which pulled in 6,811 (3,999 verified). That one dismantles the inverted pyramid and creates extensive event space, among other things.
The one that came in last was FR-EE's Prospect Pier concept, which is surprising since they really seemed to have their shit together and a lot of people seemed impressed by their presentation last month. It got 3,217 votes (1,943 verified).
See the rest of the survey's results below.
The survey isn't the only factor in the city's choosing of a design. The city's Pier Selection Committee will talk about the results at their March 20 meeting, but the committee has a bunch of other factors to weigh, including things like whether it will fit within the city's $33 million construction budget and whether it will meet the city's permitting requirements (some...citizens are...concerned about whether Destination St. Pete Pier would be able to successfully apply for the needed permits).
The committee will then forward their recommendation to the City Council, which will vote on whether to enter into a contract with the design team or not. If they do so, negotiations would ensue. Then permitting. Then construction.
And, by the end of 2017, Bob's your uncle, we'll have our lovely new downtown waterfront icon.
...Unless a group of people gets mad because they don't like the design that gets chosen so they decide to have a petition drive to get the Pier on the ballot and run a pricey campaign that ultimately defeats backers of the design. But those things would never happen here, would they?
