ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The St. Petersburg City Council approved spending $1.4 million on Thursday to demolish the Jungle Prada Park Pier, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Helene, but residents worry it won\u2019t be replaced because there\u2019s no plan in place.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The St. Petersburg City Council approved spending $1.4 million on Thursday to demolish the Jungle Prada Park Pier
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The pier was severely damaged by Hurricane Helene in 2024 and has been closed for nearly 19 months
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West side\u00a0residents worry it won\u2019t be replaced because there\u2019s no plan in place\u00a0
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City Council Member Copley Gerdes assures a plan will be developed to build a new pier<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, we have a lot of concerns about should this pier come down, what happens with no plan to move forward on paper first?\u201d said Juliana Fisher, Jungle Prada Neighborhood Association president. \u201cWe\u2019re really concerned about the timeline and the potential challenges in the future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Helene\u2019s storm surge in September 2024 left many of the wooden pier planks buckled, with a few completely washed out in a section near the end. Some of the wooden pilings below, which support the structure, were also bent in the wave action from the storm. <\/p>\n
The pier has been closed for nearly 19 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fisher said she moved to the neighborhood six years ago specifically for the western facing water access.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the only over water access on the entire west side of the St. Pete city limits,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s heavily used not only by people that live right here in the neighborhood but all over Pinellas County.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also historic as the Jungle Prada Park has had a pier for more than 100 years, according to Fisher.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pier has actually been here in some iteration since 1913,\u201d she said. \u201cThis particular structure has been here for over 50 years. It was rehabbed in 2005.\u201d<\/p>\n
Azalea neighborhood resident Brendan Turley said he\u2019s also worried the city won\u2019t rebuild a new pier with the same footprint after the planned demolition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been told that there\u2019s not enough money to build it back as long as it is currently,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a concern that there\u2019s just not a plan in place to replace it with anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Council Member Copley Gerdes represents the district and wants to assure west side residents a plan will be developed to build a new pier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a current conversation about replacing the pier. Unfortunately, because it\u2019s such a big structure, it\u2019s going to take some time,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a pier on the west side of St. Petersburg. Unequivocally. The mayor and I have talked about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerdes said the city has filed a FEMA claim, which valued replacing the same wooden structure at more than $5 million. The city has been waiting for a determination. The city council member wants the new pier to be built with concrete, which will be strong enough to withstand the next hurricane but also cost more money.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to have to deal with this again,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we\u2019re going through those conversations now and eventually there\u2019ll be an RFP (Request For Proposal) to go out for the new pier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fisher said she knows the city\u2019s operating on a very tight budget, which is another reason she\u2019s concerned the city won\u2019t build a new pier. Residents from five neighborhood associations have formally banded together and are willing to help the city raise funds for the project, according to Fisher. They want the pier to be the exact same length, which extends nearly 200 feet from the shoreline.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point in time, we feel very, very strongly that anything less than a structure that we have now would be a disservice to our community,\u201d she said. \u201cOur biggest ask at this point in time is that the city openly communicate with us\u2026 Let us work with you to bring this back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerdes said if residents feel his office has not done a good job at communication \u201cthat\u2019s on us\u201d and he will make improving awareness a priority. A date for demolition has not been set yet but Gerdes expects it will happen in the next few months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The St. Petersburg City Council approved spending $1.4 million on Thursday to demolish the Jungle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[767,3125,2968,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,12166,135,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-236078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-hurricane-helene","10":"tag-josh-rojas","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pinellas-county","13":"tag-st-pete","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news","19":"tag-storm-season","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}