[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...lasio-outraged

Cuomo pushes Penn Station district takeover; de Blasio outraged
Deputy mayor objects as governor seeks huge towers to pay for transit-hub improvements


By Daniel Geiger
March 28, 2018

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is seeking sweeping powers to take control of the Penn Station area to spur the construction of huge towers and pour the proceeds into improving the long-maligned transit hub.

According to a document leaked by sources that outlines the legislation, the state’s Urban Development Corp.—a subsidiary of the Cuomo-controlled Empire State Development Corp.—would create a development district from Eighth to Sixth avenues and from West 34th to West 32nd streets, as well as to West 30th Street west of Seventh Avenue.

In the zone, the state would seek the authority to supersede city environmental and land-use reviews that normally dictate development. The governor also wants the unfettered right to condemn and seize property. The state could also gain the power to increase zoning in the area to encourage the construction of towers of unprecedented height and bulk.

According to sources, the state would capture potentially billions of dollars of additional tax revenue from the larger properties built in the neighborhood and then use those funds to make sweeping fixes to Penn Station.

The prospect of having the state take control of the area surrounding the transit hub and remaking it to harvest billions of dollars was met with outrage by city officials.

“This basically usurps all previous approaches in which the city and state worked collectively to develop neighborhoods and projects,” Alicia Glen, the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, said. “This basically gives the state unlimited authority to build anything they want. And not only that, this is the first time I have ever seen a situation where it would have the ability not to comply with the basic environmental-review process.”

“If this goes through, the state will be able to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, in one of the busiest sections of Manhattan. We’re talking no environmental review process and zero input from New York City," City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said in a statement. "This plan must be stopped.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.3902346

Cuomo pitches eleventh-hour plan for state control of land near Penn Station

By Glenn Blain

According to a draft of a proposal circulating Tuesday and Wednesday, Cuomo’s plan would allow the state to take properties from Sixth to Eighth Aves. and 30th to 34th Sts.

But late Wednesday afternoon, Cuomo officials said the details of the plan were already outdated and that any new proposal in the budget would require all the usual approvals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/n...velopment.html

Cuomo Seeks State Control of Penn Station Neighborhood


By JESSE McKINLEY
MARCH 28, 2018

By late Wednesday, the governor’s office was assuring lawmakers that the proposal, which was obtained by The New York Times, was merely a draft, and an early bid in what was expected to be heated negotiations over any redevelopment plan.

Wiley Norvell, a communications adviser in City Hall, said the city has been in talks for months with the state, the M.T.A. and Vornado, a major property owner in the Penn Station vicinity, over possible development plans for the area. But Mr. Norvell said that there had been no discussion of the sort of proposal that the Cuomo administration is now floating. He said the city first saw the proposal on Wednesday and did not get the text of the proposal from the governor’s office.

There were some supporters for the governor’s approach, as well. Kathryn Wylde, the president of Partnership for New York City, sent a statement late Wednesday saying that Penn Station “requires substantial investment of funds that the M.T.A. currently does not have.”

“The governor’s commitment to make this a state priority is a positive step forward on a project that will not happen without extraordinary intervention by the state,” Ms. Wylde said.

But the overall goal remained to turn Penn Station, long derided as a dark and dismal rail hub, into a modern facility, while also incorporating commercial, residential and mixed-use development surrounding it. In addition, such a project would provide jobs, increase the tax base and “enhance the recognition of the city and state as a worldwide center of commerce,” according to the draft proposal.