Details of Tuesday’s handshake agreement on the city budget have not yet been decided, so several Lower Manhattan projects expected to be included in the budget are still to be negotiated.
The deal between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on the 2008 budget represents “broad parameters,” said Paul Nagle, spokesperson to City Councilmember Alan Gerson of Lower Manhattan.
A few weeks ago, Nagle said details about the opening of New York Public Library’s Battery Park City branch would be clear after the budget was passed. If included in the budget, construction on the library will begin this winter and should take about 18 months. The library is estimated to cost $4.3 million between construction, furniture and computers. It will be located in the Riverhouse condo building at 1 River Terrace.
The Battery Conservancy is also waiting for the budget announcement. Warrie Price, the Battery Conservancy’s president, is hopeful that Bloomberg and Gerson will include $2 million each in their discretionary budgets to help fund construction costs for a Battery Park playground to be designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, who is donating his services.
The city’s $59 billion budget includes $1.3 billion in property, sales and small-business tax cuts. The details on allocation items will come later this week. “Final negotiations over the details are taking place over the next two days,” Nagle said Wednesday. “We won’t know until then.”
—Anindita Dasgupta
