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Public hearings set on WTC memorial

The World Trade Center site in a photo taken on May 30, 2002

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The agency overseeing rebuilding at the World Trade Center site will begin a series of public hearings on Tuesday to get input on a permanent memorial to the more than 2,800 people killed in the September 11 attacks.

The first meeting by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will be held in Staten Island, followed by meetings in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and in New Jersey in the next two weeks.

The LMDC is working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- a transportation agency that owns the 16 acres where the Twin Towers and four smaller buildings stood.

The agencies have been flooded with some 5,000 e-mails and letters suggesting concepts for a memorial.

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An international design competition will begin next year with a target date of September 2003 for choosing a winning design.

Monday night, victims' families -- advising the LMDC and other groups including Lower Manhattan residents -- held a joint meeting for the first time to discuss memorial concepts.

"One of the specifics that some of the families feel strongly about is the preservation of the footprints," said Nikki Stern, a WTC widow, referring to the acre-wide foundations of the towers.

"It's not just the top, where the towers once stood. It's above and below ground, six stories down, where the majority of remains were found," added WTC widow Monica Iken.

Other relatives took a different view, recognizing that restoration of certain train lines would encroach on the underground part of the footprints.

"There are a group of families on the advisory board who don't feel we should sacrifice the transportation infrastructure of the area or jeopardize the economic engine that could be created there for that whole tip just if we have to pierce underneath that," said Christy Ferer, a WTC widow who is also an adviser to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Many families who lost loved ones in the attacks on the World Trade Center view the site as sacred ground.

"For most families, I would say truly that is where their loved one died and that's where their loved one remains, " said Mary Fetchet, whose son was killed.

"Residents are reluctant to intrude on what are really, really deep debates," said Liz Berger, a Lower Manhattan resident who will be among the thousands living near whatever memorial park is built.

"The people who live down here are pioneers. They helped build this community. They're staying," Berger said.

For the residents and the families, who sat at opposite ends of a board room table, Monday's meeting was a watershed.

"I think we seem to be on the same train. I think we left the station. Let's make it to the next stop," said Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter whose son was one of 343 New York fire department personnel killed on September 11.

"We got a wonderful job ahead of, we really do. As sad as it is, it's a wonderful job," Ielpi said.

Site plans requested

The LMDC and the Port Authority on Monday published a "request for qualifications" to professional architects worldwide to submit proposals for the overall site plan.

At the end of September, five new firms will be hired to help devise land use plans for the next phase of the planning process.

The first six preliminary plans -- unveiled in July -- designed by two Manhattan firms, met with widespread public criticism.

Critics said they were too cluttered with office buildings. Firms were asked to design plans for the 16-acre site that restored the 11 million square feet of office space lost when the World Trade Center towers fell.

The LMDC hopes to release three new site plans in December and settle on one plan by next spring.

The memorial design competition will run concurrently.