By Nancy Reardon
Community Board 1’s Tribeca committee decided last week that the Western Union Building at 60 Hudson St. should only have security barriers if the New York Police Department decides they are necessary.
The 20-story building, located between Worth and Thomas Sts. and between W. Broadway and Hudson St., stores thousands of gallons of diesel fuel on its upper floors and residents have been battling with the city to enforce the laws regarding diesel storage. The building houses telecommunication firms and residents have also complained about the noise from the building’s backup generators and air conditioners.
Shaun Mooney, property manager and part owner of the property, presented the committee with barrier options at its Jan. 6 meeting. Since Sept. 11th, jersey barriers — similar to what are found on a highway — have protected the building. Mooney said he wanted to replace them with more attractive planters.
The round planters would be about three feet wide and three feet high, according to the plans, but committee members raised objections over whether they were really necessary or would be maintained.
C.B. 1 has no authority over security matters, but it can weigh in on which type of barriers are used. There are three options: jersey barriers, planters and bollards, which are concrete posts. The N.Y.P.D. is in the process of reviewing the building’s plan and will make a recommendation.
Det. Walter Burnes said no decision had been made yet. “Every site and every incident is analyzed on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “We have no preference for planters or bollards.”
Fire Department spokesperson Paul Iannizzotto agreed. “Neither barrier affects our ability to do anything. As long as the entrance to the building and fire hydrants are not blocked, we’re fine.”
Mooney said that both the N.Y.P.D. and F.D.N.Y. would have copies of the building plans that would include the location of any security barrier.
He also said that barriers would be unlikely to hinder an evacuation in the case of an emergency. “There are not too many people in there,” he said. “More than 500 people coming and going in one day is a lot.” The building was built to accommodate 5,000 people, but Mooney said that there are less than 25 people on 90 percent of the floors. The building has four entrances and four stairwells.
Community Board 1, which prefers no security barriers, voted for concrete bollards as its first preference, even though Mooney said that the site had already been deemed too weak to support them. “We brought in an X-ray company to locate where all the utilities enter the building,” he said. “The sidewalk conditions won’t allow bollards.”
The community board also voted that any barrier must be maintained by the property management company and requested an additional meeting to discuss security issues with an expert present.
WWW Downtown Express
