Paterson Wants New Moynihan Station Plan From Developers

Governor Paterson said today that his administration has asked the developers of the planned redevelopment of Pennsylvania Station to come back with a new plan, showing the first public sign of life in the project in months.

In a Q&A on WCBS radio, Mr. Paterson was asked about the status of the long-delayed project, known as Moynihan Station.

"We have asked the developers of the potential Moynihan Station to come back to us with another plan that particularly features the subject we've been talking about today--transportation," Mr. Paterson said. "Already we have addressed with them the dwindling supply of revenues that we as the state can put into the plan, and we're expecting an answer form them within a week or two."

We're not entirely sure what that means, as the last plan called for a major transportation improvement in the form of a more than $2 billion redo of Penn Station and a $1 billion expansion into the Farley Post Office. With that said, it did receive criticism for becoming too much of a real estate transaction, worth billions to the developers.

(The developers, Related and Vornado, had no comment.)

Also in the call, Mr. Paterson was asked about Atlantic Yards, with the WCBS hosts relaying a question from a listener critical of subsidies to the project.

His response:

"There is a point that the listener correctly has addressed, that if is starts to become too costly, a lot of these projects that we were for, we may have to change our minds," he said. "To this point, we don't think that we're there with the Atlantic Yards, and continue to try to help them."

Also of note, Mr. Paterson strengthened his rhetoric against the M.T.A.'s proposed fare hike, saying "I'll do all I can to try to stop it."