CB1 Voices Fears of Bus Onslaught by Etta Sanders Officials of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (LMDC) and the Port Authority were peppered with questions about bus parking when they presented the “refined” master plan for the World Trade Center site to the community board’s WTC Redevelopment Committee on Sept. 29. The revised plan, which was announced by architect Daniel Libeskind on Sept. 17, removes truck access and transportation infrastructure from the footprints, aspects of his original plan that some victim’s families fiercely opposed. But for residents the impact of visitors to the site on the surrounding neighborhoods continues to cause concern. “We’re already choked with buses,” said board member Anthony Notaro of Battery Park City, noting that West Street already is often lined with buses. “This is in front of bike paths we’ve built for our families and kids. It’s going to get worse.” The revised plans show a new underground bus parking facility at Site 26 at the northwest corner of West and Vesey Streets in Battery Park City. An alternative location is on Liberty Street at the site of the Deutsche Bank building, which is expected to be torn down. That site, however, would have space for only 40-45 buses. Andrew Winters, the LMDC’s director of planning, design and development, said it is estimated that 90 to 100 buses at any given time—or about 160 per day—will bring tourists to the site. With improvements to the transportation system, they say only 15 percent of the anticipated 5 million visitors a year will arrive by tourist bus. CB1 chair Madelyn Wils, who could not stay for the discussion after an earlier presentation at the meeting, said in an interview that bus parking in Battery Park City posed health and safety dangers. “I will not accept having blocks of idling buses staged to get into a parking lot at site 26 at grade.” Both of the proposed sites face other obstacles. Underground parking at Site 26 would require the building of a new “bathtub,” a costly retaining wall to keep the Hudson River at bay. Parking under Liberty Street, as described by Winters, would require buses to maneuver through narrow surrounding streets, an mage that drew laughs from the 20 or so community members in attendance. “If you’re going to have buses go down Greenwich Street then make a right on Cedar to access the parking   area, I think that's a nightmare in the making", said Andy Jurinko, a 26-year Cedar Street resident. An earlier proposal, to provide for bus parking under the footprints at the site of the memorial, was rejected by victims’ family members who view that area as a cemetery. But some have also voiced support for residents. “The footprints are very sacred to us. But we don’t want it in their backyard either,” said Jack Lynch, the father of a firefighter who died in the attack and one of the most outspoken of the family members. Some residents asked that bus parking on the trade center footprints be reconsidered. But Winters ruled it out. “The LMDC is committed not to do that,” he said. The bus issue is emblematic of the difficulties rebuilding officials have faced: How to replace more than 10 million square feet of office space, restore 600,000 square feet of retail, provide new cultural facilities, restore and expand transportation infrastructure, while leaving the footprints of the towers untouched. The current solutions rely upon using the Deutsche Bank site at 130 Liberty Street and an adjacent property to route trucks directly off West Street into a security zone along Liberty Street, rather than beneath the memorial site as originally proposed. Deutsche Bank wants its building demolished. Two of its insurers assert that it can be restored. “The fact remains that we need to acquire the Deutsche Bank building,” said Joseph Seymour, executive director of the Port Authority. “It’s either going to be through eminent domain or through negotiations.”