Many civic groups, such as the Regional Plan Association, the APA and the local community board have opposed New York City’s plan to redevelop the far west side of Midtown Manhattan with a stadium, subway extension and office buildings, even though some of them favor intensifying development in the area. Due to strong opposition from these groups and others, the city is now considering a slightly modified plan that reduces office space and increases housing, but the stadium remain the most contested element of the overall package.

The Tri-State Campaign’s was one of many voicing concerns about transit and traffic issues raised by the proposal at a City Planning Commission hearing last Thursday. On transportation, the draft environmental statement is inadequate because:

Unrealistic stadium transit ridership assumptions could mean worse congestion than predicted in the draft environmental statement. The city claims 68% of Jets stadium attendees will use mass transit. But no sports venue in NYC or in the rest of the U.S. sees a transit rate close to this number. Urban stadiums near transit service see at best about half of attendees using local bus or train routes. About 52% of Knicks/Rangers fans use transit. Stadiums farther from transit service see lower percentages — for example, an estimated 17% of Mets fans and 30% of Yankees fans use transit for NYC games. If the city’s assertion about huge transit use for games is wrong, the effect on traffic could be enormous. "If the same percentage of fans travel by car to Jets games as to Madison Square Garden events, 4,700 more cars would be added to the local street network than the EIS admits, a 66% increase," said Toro.

Overall, traffic and transit treatments in the EIS are far from comprehensive. The study looks only at specific intersections, fails to look at cumulative impacts, and provides for only weak traffic mitigation. As RPA has noted, the transit study fails to account for the total consumption of NJTransit capacity into Penn Station by 2009, and does not explain how Grand Central will handle new demand for the # 7 subway.

The proposed parking requirements also appear to foresee a more car-dependent district than exists elsewhere in Manhattan. The zoning plan calls for .33 spaces per dwelling unit, yet the rest of Midtown has no parking space requirement. In fact, the city limits parking supply in order to manage traffic. Similarly, the proposed .35 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of office space will discourage transit use — most of Manhattan requires less — only .25 spaces per 1,000 square feet of floor area.

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