It's back to square one for the St. Petersburg Pier.
On Thursday, Mayor Bill Foster will present a plan to City Council to restart the process of selecting a new design.
This time around there will not be an international design competition like the one that generated the failed Lens design last time.
Acting on input from the 8/28 Alliance, Mayor Foster says he plans to conduct a scientific survey of 1,000 people. The survey will focus less on design and more on what people want to do at a new pier.
"We are going to focus less on form and more on function," said Foster. "We'll take the survey and narrow it down to the top for or six choice and then have a jury of local people decide on the best one."
Don't expect much action on the mayor's plan until after the November municipal election. He's locked in a tough re-election campaign against opponent, Rick Kriseman, who says he has his own pier plan.
"We've already had a pier task force give us 63 recommendations," Kriseman said. "We should take those, select the top ideas and send out RFPs within three months."
The old inverted pyramid is dark and empty. It was supposed to be demolished this summer, but the demolition permits are held up.