The Port Authority will have a public hearing Nov. 28 to listen to concerns of Downtown residents about the impact of a tour bus parking and vehicle security screening center.
Those attending will be able to make comments on the environmental assessment for the World Trade Center Vehicular Security Center and Tour Bus Parking Facility Project that is scheduled to open in 2011. The project will include examining all vehicles that enter the World Trade Center site and a parking facility for tour buses that would visit the World Trade Center site, “which would alleviate the need for tour buses to park and/or idle on local streets,” according to the Port’s announcement.
Members of Community Board 1, however, have already expressed concern regarding the gap between the date when the World Trade Center memorial is slated to open, Sept. 11, 2009, and when the parking facility and security center is scheduled to be finished, 2011. The parking facility and security center will be located at the former Deutsche Bank building site at 130 Liberty St.
According to the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center Web site, LowerManhattan.info, around 250,000 daily visitors will be expected at the memorial. C.B. 1 also wants an active “scrubber” filtration system incorporated in the design for the security center and parking facility so clean air will be expelled.
The hearing will take place at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in the Richard Harris Terrace Room at 199 Chambers St. from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The public can register to speak between those times. There will be a brief presentation at 4:30 p.m. and it will be repeated at 6:30 p.m. The project’s environmental assessment can be viewed aat www.panynj.gov/pathrestoration. All oral and written comments received at the hearing, as well as comments received by Dec. 28, will be part of the record. Written comments can be sent to: WTC VSC and Tour Bus Parking Facility Project, The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, 115 Broadway, 10th Floor New York, NY 10006.
