Ten years ago, the City Council gave Madison Square Garden and its owners, controlled by James Dolan, 10 years to either move or fix problems created when a previous generation of urban planners thought, wrongly, that squashing it on top of Penn Station was a good idea.
But those who run the Garden failed to make any improvements in that time, and neither did City Hall or the state.
On Wednesday, the City Planning Commission voted 9-1 to give Dolan and his team another 10-year permit; it’s asking us to trust MSG to keep a new round of promises that the arena will be improved.
No way.
The City Council, which must still OK such a move, should give the Garden no more than a four-year extension — and not a minute more, as leverage to be sure he lives up to his promises.
It’s only prudent.
Meanwhile, former MTA boss Patrick Foye and current boss, Janno Lieber, are in a cage match over different visions of how to fix the problems.
Foye has thrown his support behind a plan by the Italian firm ASTM to sheath the Garden in a glass box and reportedly pay MSG $500 million for the Hulu Theater; Lieber prefers a less eye-catching vision with more space for commuters.
In both cases, the Garden would stay on top of the station, making life harder for both it and the station going forward and pushing costs up during construction.
Both plans would require billions of public dollars, and just as many complex real-estate, engineering and construction decisions that could take years to nail down.
Each plan depends on Dolan’s “promise” to do the right thing, whatever that turns out to be.
In the meantime, Dolan is making the classic New York real-estate ask: You want something?
Pay me.
That’s where the $500 million for the theater comes in.
Meanwhile, remember, the city doesn’t charge Dolan taxes for sitting on the biggest transportation hub in the region: Per the city’s Independent Budget Office, MSG gets as much as $50 million a year in property relief, totaling over $1 billion over a 20-year period.
The city certainly has leverage: Without the special permit, the Garden would not be allowed to host more than 2,500 customers (with it, MSG can accommodate 20,000 people).
In addition, Dolan would lose the rights to have lucrative, supersized electronic exterior billboards.
Setting a limit on his control — not agreeing to his request for a permit with no time limit — is the only way to make sure he keep his promises and the public gets the final say on whether he does.
Dolan wants the City Planning Commission to determine if he’s made the promised improvements he’s promised.
But how can its members possibly call him out if he reneges after they’ve given him a permit for 10 years, as they want to do?
Their leverage would be gone.
And New Yorkers could be stuck in the same rut a decade from now.
The City Council is set to hold a hearing on this issue on July 18 and then vote on it; a four-year special permit means the council would vote again in 2027, keeping everyone on a tight leash.
A lot can happen in four years.
Only two years ago, everyone thought Gov. Andrew Cuomo was going to push through a Penn Station plan to be financed by a sweetheart deal with Vornado to build 10 office towers.
Now he’s gone, and so is the money promised by Vornado.
On the other hand, it only took 18 months from groundbreaking until the Barclays Center had its first show.
Who knows?
Maybe in four years we can have a new Madison Square Garden too, and at least some real progress on improvements to Penn Station and the neighborhood.
If not, the council can call the foul.
Let’s start a four-year countdown clock on Dolan’s promises.
After four years, we can reconsider.
Robert Yaro is a former president of the Regional Plan Association
