Anger as City Set to Okay Diesel Fuel at 60 Hudson St. By Barry Owens At least 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel are believed to be stored at 60 Hudson Street. And it appeared late last month that the city was close to giving the building’s owners the OK to keep it there, despite years of protests and legal threats from neighbors. “We have a conceptual understanding,” said Jennifer Givner, a spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings. “We both understand the needs here, but we are not at agreement yet.” Sixty Hudson Street houses equipment for telecommunications companies, which require the diesel fuel for backup generators. The building’s owners and city officials, citing security reasons, have refused to confirm exactly how much fuel is stored there. But the quantity is reportedly double the amount that was stored in 7 World Trade Center, where burning diesel fuel is believed to have contributed to the structure’s collapse on Sept. 11. The fuel at 60 Hudson Street has been a source of fear and long-simmering anger among neighbors and elected officials. “It’s not a good idea here, or in any neighborhood,” said City Councilman Alan Gerson, who met with the Buildings Department last month to insist that it require additional fire safety measures and impose strict noise and air pollution restrictions at 60 Hudson Street before granting the owners a variance for the fuel storage. Givner said that “the conditions we presented them with are significant safety enhancements,” though she would not elaborate. Gerson and a half dozen concerned neighbors addressed Community Board 1 last month as the board prepared to adopt an emergency resolution demanding that 60 Hudson Street be held to the “highest post-9/11 standards of safety.” But some of the building’s neighbors said that those standards were not enough. “We can’t stand to have this threat in our nieghborhood, period,” said Deborah Allen, of 42 Hudson St. The issue even brought out former CB1 chairwoman Anne Compoccia, who implored Richard Kennedy, the board’s acting chairman, to exert more pressure on city officials. “It has to be stopped,” she said. Tim Lannan, a board member and leader of Neighbors Against NOISE, a community organization fighting the building, said that local residents will sue if a variance is granted. Givner said the Buildings Department was well aware of the concerns. “If I lived there, I would feel the same way,” she said.