Just as Elkins is thinking about searching for the White City again, Heinicke calls him. While in Honduras for a funeral, his wife Mabel managed to talk to President Porfirio Lobo Sosa about the White City. The president gave permission for the project to find the White City, and even offered help with getting the permits from a member of his cabinet. It will be a political win for the president as well as the country.

Elkins then convinces the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) at the University of Houston to take on the project. The project is risky for NCALM, as it typically uses lidar scanning on existing sites, such as Caracol, not to search for sites that may not exist. They choose three target areas: T1, T2, and T3. Target Four (T4), where Glassmire’s site may have been, is removed from the list due to recent illegal deforestation and, likely, looting. Elkins receives the permits for the lidar scanning project in October 2010.

Elkins convinces his friend, filmmaker Bill Benenson, to finance and codirect a documentary film about the Lost City project. Steve Elkins now brings Preston into the team, who is initially skeptical.