HELL’S KITCHEN — The Port Authority’s chairman hasn’t ruled out using eminent domain to secure a site for a new bus terminal and should “recuse” himself from the planning process, a group of elected officials maintain.
In September, the agency and elected officials including Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilman Corey Johnson released a statement saying they’d agreed to restart a process that was widely-criticized for lacking public input.
On Tuesday, however, the same group of politicians claimed the agency’s chairman John Degnan “has not been negotiating in good faith.”
“[D]espite our positive and constructive conversations over the past few months… the chairman appears to be continuing to pursue a replacement bus terminal that uses eminent domain, for a facility in Manhattan which serves customers primarily from New Jersey, without regard to cost and impact on our constituents in the surrounding Hell’s Kitchen community,” a letter they addressed to Degnan and vice chairman Steven Cohen said.
Hell’s Kitchen residents and elected officials have voiced concerns that swaths of the neighborhood could be razed if the agency uses eminent domain to secure a site for the terminal.
The letter accuses Degnan of placing his political and personal needs over regional planning necessities — "promis[ing] members of the New Jersey legislature he would get the terminal done" — and cites his cost estimates for the project as a factor that “has hindered progress on developing plans for a realistic project sensitive to community concerns.”
Degnan's estimates ballooned from $2 billion in 2014 to $10 to $15 billion this past March, the letter says.
“Rather than work through an Environmental Impact Study that examines all options and results in realistic cost estimates and funding structures, the chairman’s approach has added years of delay, hundreds of millions of dollars in cost escalation and has created confusion in the minds of the public,” the politicians wrote.
“...[W]e believe that the chairman should recuse himself from determining the site, design or features of the new bus terminal, and that the Port Authority should select either New York State or New York City as a co-planning partner, given the profound local impact of this project,” they added.
At a Port Authority board meeting press conference on Thursday, Degnan said he was “disappointed” by the letter, given the progress he thought the two sides were making.
“It’s astounding to me that Nadler decided to fire this broad, insulting shot at both me and the process,” he said, a video of the meeting shows. “I wish I knew exactly what compelled him to make that statement.”
“I don’t understand it, there’s got to be an explanation — ask him,” he added.
A spokesman for Nadler did not respond to request for comment regarding Degnan’s statements.
