CB1 Calls for Community Input on WTC Site By Etta Sanders Community Board 1 chided Gov. George Pataki and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for ignoring community input in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. In two resolutions passed on Oct. 18, the board called upon the agency to move more quickly to bring retail to the site, restore cultural institutions to the planning, and to keep the rebuilding on schedule. The board was reacting in part to the recent removal of two museums, the International Freedom Center (IFC) and the Drawing Center, from a cultural building planned for alongside the memorial, after victims' family member objected to their presence. Board members said those decisions ignored community opinion that cultural is important enhancement to the site. "We have to consider the effect of this all on our community and our wishes are not being heeded," Peter Braus, CB1 member, told LMDC vice president Michael Haberman at an Oct. 17 meeting of the board's WTC Redevelopment Committee. Less than two weeks earlier, LMDC board members themselves spoke out against the governors actions in removing the Freedom Center from the planned cultural building on the site. See story. Only an hour before the IFC was about to give a presentation to the committee late last month, Gov. Pataki announced that the museum would not be on the site, effectively ending community comment on the plan. See story. Those actions, the resolution said, "made a mockery of the public review process." "We should have been given a chance to give that input and that was circumvented and that to me that is what is so distressing," said CB1 chairwoman Julie Menin. Haberman told the committee that community opinion is important, but is just one consideration. "The LMDC cares deeply about what the community wants in their neighborhood, but as we all know there are a lot of constituent groups-other New Yorkers, family members-all weighing in on this issue," Haberman said. Haberman also countered criticism from the board that the pace of the rebuilding was lagging. The major components of the plan- the PATH terminal, Freedom Tower and memorial-are all on schedule, he said. Citing their lack of say in the selection of four cultural institutions chosen for the site last year, the community board also said the LMDC and the Port Authority should give "a significant advisory role" to the local community in the selection of any new cultural institutions and retail for the site. "Those [changes] have been done because of other groups, primarily the families [of victims]," said board member Marc Donnefeld. "I have a major concern that this is going to end up being a large masoleum and not the vibrant center that's supposed to celebrate life as well respect the death that occurred there."