City Leaders Finalize Rezoning Deal

A deal hammered out for Manhattan's far West Side will increase affordable housing, reduce commercial density along 11th Avenue, and save the city $1 billion in financing costs, according to representatives for the New York City Council and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Among the highlights of the deal is an increase in the percentage of affordable housing in the district from 19 percent to 28 percent and a restructuring that reduces financing costs by about $1 billion.

The agreement sets aside more than 3,000 new residential units and more than 400 preserved units for affordable housing out of the total 14,000 units planned for the massive redevelopment in the Hudson Yards area. It also establishes a new $40 million affordable housing fund and reduces commercial density from previous versions of the rezoning.

The agreement also prevents the city's District Improvement Fund for the far West Side from helping to finance either the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center or Bloomberg's controversial proposal for a $1.4 billion facility that will provide additional convention space and serve as a stadium for the New York Jets football team.

Lawsuits Aim at Jets Stadium Plans

Lawsuits filed by community groups and business interests are taking aim at environmental documents for the proposed $1.4 billion football stadium and convention center complex on the West Side of Manhattan. The stadium, intended as the home park for the New York Jets, is a controversial centerpiece of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's massive redevelopment plans for the West Side's Hudson Yards district.

A suit filed in state Supreme Court by the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association and Madison Square Garden argues that city and state authorities approved the environmental documents and neighborhood rezoning through a "fatally flawed" process. The plaintiffs contend that the Environmental Impact Statement uses unreliable data in asserting that 70 percent of event attendees for the stadium would use mass transit. That statistic derives from a telephone survey of Jets season ticket holders that used "push questions" to skew the data, the plaintiffs charge.

As a result, the plaintiffs contend, the EIS violates state and city law by failing to fully disclose the project's environmental impact. A realistic traffic assessment, they claim, would reveal "overwhelming" traffic jams that would effectively shut down much of Manhattan as well as traffic to parts of New Jersey and Queens for hours before and after events. In addition, the suits assert that the environmental documents underestimate the severity of the project's impact, omit mitigation measures, and fail to address how project funds would pay for mitigation.

In a separate lawsuit, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a nonprofit watchdog group, also challenges how the environmental documents rely on the Jets' season-ticket holder survey. The environmental documents assume a far greater proportion of mass-transit use than does any other urban stadium, the group argued. To mitigate the impact on the city's transit system, the EIS relies on construction of the Second Avenue subway and the Long Island Rail Road connection to Grand Central Station, two projects that the group said face an uncertain future in light of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's funding difficulties.

Jury Sides with Silverstein

The World Trade Center site rebuilding effort could gain a $1.1 billion boost from a major legal win for Larry Silverstein, president of Silverstein Properties, which is leaseholder on the site. In the second of two trials over the value of insurance payments owed to Silverstein following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the jury agreed that the terrorist assaults on the Twin Towers constituted two separate events rather than a single one, as a group of nine insurance companies had argued at trial.

If the award wins approval from a three-member appraisal panel, and if expected appeals are unsuccessful, the verdict could double payments from the group of carriers to $2.2 billion. That would bring the insurance payout due Silverstein to $4.6 billion.

In a statement, Silverstein said the additional funds, "together with Liberty Bonds, will ensure a timely and complete rebuild of the World Trade Center." Seven World Trade Center, the 52-story, $700-million successor to its predecessor that collapsed Sept. 11, is scheduled for early 2006 completion. And by 2009, Silverstein expects completion of Freedom Tower, which would be the world's tallest building at 1,776 ft.