Cruisers from all over the world will be able to step directly from their catamaran onto St. Pete Beach.
Thursday afternoon St. Pete Beach Public Works Director Steve Hallock announced that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) awarded the city a $219,000 Boating Infrastructure Grant. The city will use the money to build 12 transient boat slips by the Community Center. The dock will have electrical, water and pumpout facilities, city manager Mike Bonfield said.
Arriving boaters will have access to community center facilities such as the pool, fitness room and restrooms, although, Bonfield said, the city has not made a final decision about this access. In addition, the city will provide bicycles for boaters to use ashore.
The project’s estimated total cost is just over $310,000; the city will pay the difference, although part of the match will come in the form of in-kind services such as administrative work and city engineering services.
St. Pete Beach will spend $73,250 in actual cash.
Administrative Services Supervisor Dan O’Connor said the city had to include the in-kind services as part of the grant application.
“As part of the application, a part of it has to be in soft money or in-kind services,” he said.
Bonfield estimates the city will receive between $50,000 and $75,000 in slip rent annually. Across the bay, Gulfport Municipal Marina averages $30,000 a year from its seven transient slip rentals. That number does not include fuel sales or ship store purchases. St. Pete Beach’s plan does not include selling fuel.
Gulfport Harbormaster Denis Frain says he expects Gulfport to lose transient boat traffic to St. Pete Beach. He also praised St. Pete Beach for building the transient boating dock.
“I think it’s the ideal location. I think they have everything in place except for the docks, which now they have a grant for. I think if you build it you will come. Unfortunately, we’ll lose some of our transients to St. Pete Beach, but they’re not as well protected as the Gulfport Marina,” Frain said.
Although the federal government awarded the grant through the FWS, the federal government has yet to give the go-ahead to build the dock.
“It’s a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing,” Terri Skapik, a senior hydrogeologist and owner and president of Woods Consulting, said.
The Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE), the FWS, the United States Coast Guard (USCG), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries (NMF), the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Pinellas county’s Department of Environmental Management’s (DEM) Water and Navigation Control Authority all must all approve before the city can build the 12 slips.
“It has to be the home run of permits,” Skapik said.
First, the city submits its application to the ACOE, who then coordinates with NMF and FWS. FWS reviews the impact docks will have on the manatee population and may require a manatee education component as a condition of the permit.
“They don’t want more manatees to die. They want to make sure that the use of docks is not going to lead to more manatee deaths through watercraft collision,” Skapik said.
While the ACOE reviews the plans, the DEP will also review the city’s plan and decide whether it will grant a submerged land lease and a permit of its own.
Finally, the city will apply for a county permit through the DEM’s Water and Navigation Control Authority.
The process, Skapik said, “will probably take 12 -14 months total, because of the submerged land lease.”
After that, the city can start building the dock.
The 2011 marina feasibility study included four floating docks (transient slips on the east and permanent slips on the west) with 70 total slips and a ship store. Bonfield said the city isn’t building a marina just yet. Right now, Bonfield says, all that’s up in question is a dock.
“A decision on more docks has not been made,” he said, although the city’s
Request for Qualifications (RFQ) asks for consultants who can help the city get permits for 24, not 12 slips.
Construction manager Renee Cooper told the Gabber that the city wants to get permits for 24 slips in case it moves ahead with more slips in the future.
“The permit lasts years. It doesn’t mean that you have to build it all at the same time,” Cooper said. “Going through the permitting one time is going to be a cost-saving move instead of having to pay twice.”
To review the marina feasibility study, click here and here (file is in two parts).
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