UWS Community Board Rejects 9-Figure Rotunda Renovation Plan

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Community Board 7, which represents the Upper West Side, voted overwhelmingly to reject a city Department of Transportation plan to completely renovated a 1930s-era rotunda in Riverside Park near West 79th Street that serves as a parking garage, pedestrian plaza and traffic circle connecting to the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Board members and cyclists consider the city's plan — which will cost around $200 million — unsafe for cyclists attempting to use the traffic circle to access the Hudson River Greenway. The city's plan calls for a painted bike lane on the outer edge the traffic circle, which is no change from current bike protections.

The DOT rejected alternative proposals, such as creating a separate bike path that would circumvent the rotunda's traffic circle, during a May community board meeting, CB7 parks and environment committee co-chair Ken Coughlin said Tuesday.

A resolution passed by Community Board 7 Tuesday night said that the board would only approve the city's rotunda plan if it provided physical protection to cyclists going through the traffic circle or it included a plan to create a separate bike path that re-routed cyclists from the circle. The resolution also included conditions asking for improved signage in the circle and tactile warnings such as rumble strips to make drivers aware they are sharing the space with cyclists.

Neighborhood cyclists who spoke at Tuesday night's community board meeting asked the city to go back to the drawing board and come up with a renovation plan that would protect cyclists who use the circle. Many cyclists must use the dangerous circle in order to access the Hudson River Greenway from the West 70s on the Upper West Side.

"A capital project of this scale only comes around once in a generation. We owe it to our neighbors and our kids to get this right," Lisa Orman of the group Streetopia Upper West Side said on Tuesday. "The plan as presented by DOT does not protect cyclists."

Another cyclist, Mark Gorton, called the DOT's work on the rotunda plan "shoddy and disrespectful." Gorton said that instead of listening the alternative safety plans suggested by the community the department's engineers "refused to make any effort to consider safety."

Community Board 7 voted unanimously with 40 votes in favor and one abstention to pass its resolution rejecting the city's plan.

The city announced it would be renovating the West 79th Street Rotunda and nearby Amtrak bridge in March 2018 and is planning to begin the project sometime in 2019. The project is expected to take three or four years to complete, and a little league ball field will be used as a staging area during construction.

Much of the work being done on the rotunda and bridge will include restoring infrastructure such as the roadways, ramps and sidewalks. The city will also upgrade the rotunda to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, upgrade nearby restrooms and take measures to increase safety. The rotunda was originally built in the 1930s by Robert Moses.