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YONKERS, N.Y. A group of state, county and city officials is calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to find a new site for its bus facility, which they say is blocking Yonker's waterfront redevelopment program from moving forward.
Standing inside the bus depot Friday, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) praised the city for its Alexander Street Waterfront Master Plan, a project that aims to bring new life to the waterfront by developing a large-scale, mixed-use waterfront community.
Unfortunately, he said, the MTA building is holding up that master plan.
The poorly-sited MTA bus depot is smack dab in the middle of this waterfront redevelopment effort, Schumer said in a press release. That is why I am urging the MTA to step-up its efforts to work with Yonkers to find a new site that is appropriate and affordable.
The senator was joined by Yonkers Deputy Mayor Sue Gerry, Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins and Hudson Valley economic development officials. All three urged the MTA to partner with Yonkers and fast-track the relocation of the depot, a move Schumer said wouldnt disrupt the service in the area.
If the MTA does not come to a quick agreement with Yonkers to re-locate their operations elsewhere, the Alexander Street project cannot proceed as planned, stifling the economic development of Yonkers and the surrounding Hudson River Valley, he said in the release.
The depot, bought in 2005 by New York City, houses a 76,000 square-foot administrative building and eight mobile service stations that coordinate about 80 buses, according to the senator's office.
It sits in the heart of the Alexander Street project, a several-hundred-million-dollar waterfront plan for redeveloping a 153-acre strip of land. Officials say the redevelopment will bring a variety of projects to the city, including retail, housing, public parks and marinas, and a hotel and conference center.
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