A proposed renovation to the 96th Street subway station is gaining momentum, but some critics charge it may create a safety issue above ground. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

Everyone agrees the busy subway station at 96th street and Broadway could use a makeover, and the MTA is planning just that: an $80 million rehab, complete with a gleaming new station house located in a widened center median.

But to make room and preserve three lanes of traffic, the city wants to narrow the sidewalks on this block by 9 feet, and critics say that's prioritizing cars over pedestrians.

"What we're arguing is that sidewalk space is akin to park space; it's not akin to street space," says Matthew Roth of Transportation Alternatives. "A sidewalk is a refuge, particularly on the Upper West Side where wide sidewalks are a hallmark of the area."

Critics like Roth say transportation officials have refused to consider alternatives like narrowing traffic lanes or eliminating one lane of traffic all together. But the city and the MTA say the plan is safe and would still allow for free flow of pedestrians.

The sidewalks will still be 15 feet wide and the project would make life considerably better for the nearly 40,000 riders who use the station daily, making the station handicap accessible and cutting in half the number of stairs to reach the platform.

On Wednesday night, the local community board voted 32 to 1 to endorse the project.

It's such an improvement to the station itself," says Andrew Albert of Community Board 7. "And it's such a large amount of improvements in every aspect of the station that we think we can work out what's going to happen on the sidewalks, on the corners, in the malls themselves and with deliveries and loading zones and those types of things, and the DOT is committed to working with us."

There's still time to work out modifications to the plan; work on the three year project isn't expected to begin until next year.