[NYguy]

https://therealdeal.com/2020/02/03/emine...-plans-thanks-to-clause-in-state-budget/

Eminent domain could be used for Penn Station plans thanks to clause in state budget
Gov. Cuomo last month announced plans to acquire private real estate to expand outdated transit hub





February 03, 2020

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo laid the groundwork for his ambitious new plan to redevelop Penn Station almost two years ago.

The governor included a clause in budget legislation that would allow the state to use eminent domain in the Penn Station neighborhood, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The language also instructed the state to fix these problems by starting to plan for the station and surrounding areas, which were not specified. Legal experts say the state could use this language to justify using eminent domain to carry out its plans.

Cuomo announced in January that he would look to acquire private real estate to expand Penn Station. The area in question spans 30th and 31st streets between Seventh and Eighth , and it includes a homeless shelter, a Roman Catholic church, restaurants, bars and offices.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cuomos-penn-station-plans-echo-robert-moses-11580688000

Cuomo’s Penn Station Plans Echo Robert Moses
Clause in budget legislation would pave way for state to use eminent domain


By Jimmy Vielkind
Feb. 2, 2020

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest plan to redevelop Pennsylvania Station shows he really has become a 21st century Robert Moses—not just in dreaming big about infrastructure, but in tugging every available lever of power to move projects along.

The Democratic governor invoked Mr. Moses’ name when he announced in early January that the state would acquire the block just south of the existing rail hub, which sits below Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan, to add an additional eight tracks and accommodate regional growth.

But Mr. Cuomo laid the seeds for the proposal nearly two years ago, when he slipped a clause into budget legislation that would pave the way for the state to use eminent domain in the area. It is a tactic reminiscent of Mr. Moses—who held enormous sway over public works in New York through various unelected positions from the 1920s through the 1960s.

The area now being eyed for expansion—bounded by Seventh and Eighth avenues, 30th and 31st streets—includes offices, bars and restaurants, a homeless shelter and a Roman Catholic church that dates to 1840.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a Democrat who represents parts of Manhattan, including Penn Station, said he had great reservations about the breadth of the language and feared it could be used for real-estate development on different blocks. The track expansion now on the table is less concerning, he said.

In an interview after the governor’s presentation, Janno Lieber, chief development officer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the state didn’t have an estimate for how much the expansion would cost but planned to raise funds selling development rights over the new tracks as well as capturing some revenue from surrounding sites that could be up-zoned.

Officials at Empire State Development, the state’s economic development authority, haven’t ruled out the use of eminent domain but said they would work with the city and other stakeholders as the project moves forward. That could take more than two years, Mr. Lieber said.

Mr. Cuomo said Thursday that the current station was a hellscape, and that people shouldn’t be concerned with his moves. He brushed aside concerns over eminent domain and said the state has done major developments in Manhattan, including Battery Park City. (It was built on landfill in the Hudson River.)

“We’re talking about one block. You could fit 20 of them, I’ll bet, in Battery Park City,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We can do good things. We can do big things. We’re not impotent—we’re New York. Welcome to the state.”