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Port Authority Rejects Demand to End Bus Terminal Design Contest

By Maya Rajamani | July 22, 2016 2:17pm | Updated on July 25, 2016 7:54am
 The existing Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue.
The existing Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue.
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DNAinfo/Jill Colvin

HELL’S KITCHEN — The Port Authority has no plans to call off its competition seeking designs for a new bus terminal in Manhattan, despite a public outcry from elected officials and the mayor's office, its board chairman said.

Hours after politicians demanded that the agency delay the competition — calling the process behind it “premature” and “publicly opaque” — the chairman of Port Authority’s board of commissioners vetoed their request.

“We’re not going to defer the design and deliverability study,” John Degnan said after the agency’s board meeting on Thursday. “Its results will provide the basis upon which the dialogue that was requested today can take place.”

Critics maintain the agency moved forward without public input, and they have expressed concerns that a swath of Hell’s Kitchen could be razed to make way for a new terminal using eminent domain.

Degnan, however, said the competition process was “simply an early step in what needs to be an inclusive process moving forward.”

He said he spoke with Congressman Jerrold Nadler prior to Thursday morning’s press conference and “invited a continued dialogue” with elected officials.

“...I expect that we’ll be more aggressive in initiating that contact than we have been to date, which may be our fault,” Degnan said.

The chairman also attempted to mitigate concerns about the possible use of eminent domain.

“Taking private property for purposes of building the bus terminal is to be discouraged. That will be a factor in the choice the board makes at which concept to endorse here,” he said.

“I’m confident that the concept that ultimately is approved by the board will minimize, if not eliminate, the concerns about taking private property [and] having an adverse impact on the neighborhood,” Degnan added.

Avoiding using eminent domain would “likely reduce the cost of the terminal," Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye noted

On Friday, Community Board 4 chairwoman Delores Rubin said the board plans to meet with Port Authority officials to discuss the matter.

“…[I]f they are truly committed to engaging the stakeholders in a process by which to outline the concerns and the needs of not only their commuters, but the businesses and the residents of the area, then I don’t think it’s as much of an alarming statement,” she said.

“… [But] from the community standpoint, this is really a wait and see.”