Manhattan Community Board 4 has sent a 12-page letter to the Moynihan Station Development Corporation expressing concerns about the draft scope of work for the station's Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).
The letter stated that the board "supports the vision of transforming the Penn Station/Farley Building complex into a modern efficient transportation hub but remains deeply concerned about many of the project's details," adding that "It is the details that we know least about that concern us the most."
"We are puzzled and dismayed," the letter maintained, "that the Draft Scope of Work describes such an extensive development project without providing any site plan or images to explain the shape or location of the various elements of the project. Where are the entrances and exits to Moynihan Station East? To Moynihan Station West? To the proposed new Madison Square Garden? To the destination retail? Where are the loading docks for all of those uses? What changes are required in the Farley Building to accommodate Madison Square Garden? Where are the anticipated receiving sites within the proposed Moynihan Station Subdistrict, and how much floor area can they absorb?"
In addition to commenting that it is "flying blind," the board it was "extremely concerned at the extent to which the proposed Moynihan Station Subdistrict would revisit the carefully-negotiated 2005 Hudson Yards and 1999 Chelsea rezonings." "In particular," the letter continued, "in the Hudson Yards rezoning densities in the 34th Street Corridor were allowed to increase from a base FAR of 10 to a maximum FAR of 13 through payment to the Hudson Yards District Improvement Fund. This community fought to limit that maximum. Yet that maximum is now proposed to be increased yet again to 15.6 FAR on the south side of 34th Street, 24 FAR on the north side of 34th Street and 19 FAR at the western corners of 34th Street and Ninth Avenue, the Main Street of the lower-density Hell's Kitchen Subdistrict."
"We are also concerned about the inclusion in the proposed Subdistrict of the portion of the block south of the Farley Building," the letter said, adding that "That block was rezoned in 1999 as part of the implementation of the Chelsea 197-a Plan. The goal of the rezoning in this area was to protect the historic scale and character of 29th and 30th Streets, including the concentration of SRO's with a long history on 30th Street. This area is the sole survivor of the low-scale area, originally middle-class in character but later working-class, into which Pennsylvania Station was inserted. When the southern portion of the block was rezoned to R8B, the northern portion of the block and the Eighth Avenue frontage was rezoned to C6-3X to provide a transition to the lower-density area to the south while allowing development at a high-moderate scale on 31st Street and along Eighth Avenue. The SEIS must analyze this proposed departure from the policy that underlay the 1999 rezoning. It must also evaluate the direct visual impact that high-density development on 31st Street would have on the Farley Building itself, including the glass roof of the train hall in Moynihan Station West."
The board also said that open space must be "seriously studied" and "signage for the Garden on the building's facade would strongly diminish its character."
It listed several buildings that it said should be considered for designation as official city landmarks, such as 5 Penn Plaza, the former Lamartine Hall that was the last survivor of Greek dancing places and is on the northwest corner of 29th Street and Eighth Avenue, and the building at 339 West 29th Street that is "so far as known, the only documented Underground Railroad site in the city."
The December 14, 2006 letter was signed by Jean-Daniel Noland, J. Lee Compton, Anna Hayes Levin and Lynn Kotler.
The letter stated that the board "supports the vision of transforming the Penn Station/Farley Building complex into a modern efficient transportation hub but remains deeply concerned about many of the project's details," adding that "It is the details that we know least about that concern us the most."
"We are puzzled and dismayed," the letter maintained, "that the Draft Scope of Work describes such an extensive development project without providing any site plan or images to explain the shape or location of the various elements of the project. Where are the entrances and exits to Moynihan Station East? To Moynihan Station West? To the proposed new Madison Square Garden? To the destination retail? Where are the loading docks for all of those uses? What changes are required in the Farley Building to accommodate Madison Square Garden? Where are the anticipated receiving sites within the proposed Moynihan Station Subdistrict, and how much floor area can they absorb?"
In addition to commenting that it is "flying blind," the board it was "extremely concerned at the extent to which the proposed Moynihan Station Subdistrict would revisit the carefully-negotiated 2005 Hudson Yards and 1999 Chelsea rezonings." "In particular," the letter continued, "in the Hudson Yards rezoning densities in the 34th Street Corridor were allowed to increase from a base FAR of 10 to a maximum FAR of 13 through payment to the Hudson Yards District Improvement Fund. This community fought to limit that maximum. Yet that maximum is now proposed to be increased yet again to 15.6 FAR on the south side of 34th Street, 24 FAR on the north side of 34th Street and 19 FAR at the western corners of 34th Street and Ninth Avenue, the Main Street of the lower-density Hell's Kitchen Subdistrict."
"We are also concerned about the inclusion in the proposed Subdistrict of the portion of the block south of the Farley Building," the letter said, adding that "That block was rezoned in 1999 as part of the implementation of the Chelsea 197-a Plan. The goal of the rezoning in this area was to protect the historic scale and character of 29th and 30th Streets, including the concentration of SRO's with a long history on 30th Street. This area is the sole survivor of the low-scale area, originally middle-class in character but later working-class, into which Pennsylvania Station was inserted. When the southern portion of the block was rezoned to R8B, the northern portion of the block and the Eighth Avenue frontage was rezoned to C6-3X to provide a transition to the lower-density area to the south while allowing development at a high-moderate scale on 31st Street and along Eighth Avenue. The SEIS must analyze this proposed departure from the policy that underlay the 1999 rezoning. It must also evaluate the direct visual impact that high-density development on 31st Street would have on the Farley Building itself, including the glass roof of the train hall in Moynihan Station West."
The board also said that open space must be "seriously studied" and "signage for the Garden on the building's facade would strongly diminish its character."
It listed several buildings that it said should be considered for designation as official city landmarks, such as 5 Penn Plaza, the former Lamartine Hall that was the last survivor of Greek dancing places and is on the northwest corner of 29th Street and Eighth Avenue, and the building at 339 West 29th Street that is "so far as known, the only documented Underground Railroad site in the city."
The December 14, 2006 letter was signed by Jean-Daniel Noland, J. Lee Compton, Anna Hayes Levin and Lynn Kotler.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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