The head of the ground-zero redevelopment panel yesterday all but ruled out using the entire site for a memorial – as Mayor Giuliani advocated during his final days in office.
The comments by Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp. Chairman John Whitehead came at a City Hall press conference in which Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to move the help center for victims’ relatives from Pier 94 to Chambers Street.
Whitehead said a memorial to the Sept. 11 disaster must be substantial, and that the victims’ families are the “most important constituency.”
But he said he thinks the 16-acre site also needs some economic redevelopment.
“I’m not prepared to say that the issue has been discussed by [the panel’s board members] or exactly what the size should be,” Whitehead said.
But he suggested that new buildings would be part of the memorial, since most people perished while working for companies to which they were “loyal.”
“I believe that aspect of their loyalties . . . should be remembered when we decide what should live on in memory of them,” Whitehead said.
In his final days in office, Giuliani raised the idea of using the entire site for a memorial.
Bloomberg, who has no appointees on the redevelopment panel, said he favors a “mixed use” approach – combining a memorial and office space with schools and housing.
He also said he wants to make sure the site isn’t a “morbid circus” for curiosity-seekers.
Asked if Giuliani complicated the issue by making his views public, Whitehead praised the former mayor, but said: “I think we now share some responsibility in making decisions along these lines, and we will be considering all these views.”
Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel declined comment.
Whitehead spoke after he and seven other members of the 11-person board met with Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff.
Bloomberg said the city will move the family center next week from Pier 94, where Giuliani had established it, to 51 Chambers Street, near City Hall.
Bloomberg said he’d met with almost every victims’ family group and that they’re “uniformly ecstatic about it.”
He said the city is carefully replicating a large wall located at the pier – where people have left pictures, messages and toys to honor their missing loved ones.
The city will provide transportation from the pier to the new center for the next few weeks.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg swore in Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.