Legislation that would permit the United Nations to proceed with its proposed Manhattan expansion is blocked in the state Legislature. But the United Nations Development Corporation approved up to $250,000 yesterday for further planning on the project, expressing confidence that state representatives will change their minds and allow the project to go forward.

At the UNDC’s meeting yesterday, held in its offices at 1 United Nations Plaza, the state Senate’s decision was not on the agenda, but members were aware of opposition to the world body in city and state government. One member said he had “never seen that room so chockablock full of people,” many of whom may have attended “to see what kind of fireworks would result” from coverage of the UNDC and its role in the plan to build another office tower in the East 40s for the use of U.N. agencies.

The chairman of the UNDC, George Klein, opened the meeting with a statement reiterating for board members their roles, and the body’s purpose: “As long as we are the host city of the U.N., and as long as the president and Congress want the organization here, and New York as its host city,” the UNDC is responsible for making the world body as comfortable as possible in New York, Mr. Klein said.

“Whatever our personal feelings may be about what the U.N. does or doesn’t do, that does not mean anything for the role of this agency,” Mr. Klein, a developer, said.

“Any member who doesn’t understand what that role is should rethink membership of the board,” he added.

Jeffrey Wiesenfeld – a UNDC member who is very critical of the United Nations but argues that, as long as the organization exists in New York, it should be helped by the UNDC – explained that the U.N.-expansion tumult was not the fault of the state Legislature or the community, but rather was “the doing of the United Nations.”

Mr. Klein then alerted the body to the presence – as far as he was aware, for the first time in 23 years – of “a member of the media” at an open session of the UNDC. He was referring to a reporter from The New York Sun.

In addition to routine matters, such as the approval of minutes from the previous meeting, the body considered changes to its corporate governance.

One member, the prominent lawyer Paul Windels III, proposed an amendment that would have balanced representation of the two appointing authorities – the mayor and the governor – on the UNDC’s various subcommittees. Mr. Windels told the Sun that, given the politically sensitive nature of much of the UNDC’s work, he wanted to make sure there was greater communication between the appointing authorities and those who serve at their pleasure on the UNDC.

Mr. Windels said that, being from the private sector, he and some of his fellow UNDC members might not always be aware of the political implications of their decisions for the governor and the mayor, and he thought corporate governance should address that.

At the meeting, another director, Bruce Gelb, a former American ambassador to Belgium, responded to Mr. Windels’s amendment by saying that, considering “the garbage that’s coming out in the newspaper,” adopting the change would appear to be a “quid pro quo.” Mr. Gelb later told the Sun he was referring to this newspaper’s coverage of the UNDC.

Mr. Windels’s proposal was tabled.

Much of the meeting was devoted to what the body called the U.N. “consolidation” plans. Proponents object to the term “expansion,” saying that offices elsewhere around the city will be moved to the new structure. The UNDC heard an extensive presentation on the segment of the East River esplanade that would replace the Robert Moses Playground area to be consumed by the new 35-story U.N. building that is the centerpiece of the “consolidation.”

Representatives of the city’s Economic Development Corporation told the Sun that 28,000 square feet of parkland would be lost from the city playground, but that the proposed replacement would offer 100,000 square feet of recreational space.

The new expanse of esplanade, they said, would also complete a “missing link” in the Bloomberg administration effort to construct a waterfront greenbelt around Manhattan and the other boroughs, connecting jogging trails south of the United Nations to recreational space along the Upper East Side.

The EDC representatives also said that, though the project would be financed by the UNDC, a city-state agency, it would be paid for by the United Nations. City and state taxpayers, they said, would not be financially responsible for the construction, despite remarks to the contrary by state senators.

The last item of business was approving $250,000 for further planning for that construction. That consists of $50,000 to plan the esplanade and $200,000 to plan the 35-story swing space building.

The state Senate and Assembly, and their decisions not to take up legislation that would approve further planning, were not mentioned.

A spokesman for the EDC, Michael Sherman, said the city corporation “remains confident” that the Legislature will take up the required legislation.

After the meeting, members of the UNDC told the Sun they thought it was the role of President Bush and other national authorities, not the UNDC, to determine America’s policy toward the United Nations.

Mr. Windels said that, at his level, it’s like having “one card in 52” when it comes to knowing about the workings of the world body, while in contrast the president and the State Department have “a full deck.”

Mr. Wiesenfeld, a former aide to Governor Pataki, said that “as long as the U.N. exists, we want it in New York – and so do the mayor, governor, and president.”

“Its existential and composition issues are not the UNDC’s,” he declared.

Mr. Gelb, too, cited presidential support for the United Nations, referring to the president’s approval, last Wednesday, of a $1.2 billion, 30-year, interest-bearing loan to the United Nations for the purpose of renovating the Secretariat. The loan is in addition to the $650 million in UNDC bonds that will be used for constructing the swing space and the esplanade.

“It strikes me that there’s some relationship between the president of the United States signing a bill and the real world, far more than four state senators who don’t happen to have a constituent group that likes everything about the United Nations, or the little councilman in New York who wants to get front-page black type,” Mr. Gelb said. “I don’t think they carry the same weight.” The “little councilman” he was referring to is Simcha Felder, a 6-foot-tall Democrat of Brooklyn, who planned to introduce legislation today calling on the city not to give any assistance to the United Nations.

One of the state senators opposed to the expansion, Martin Golden, Republican of Brooklyn, expressed no concern at the UNDC members’ decisions and comments.

“I haven’t changed my position,” Mr. Golden said. “Unless they know something about Kofi Annan’s resignation, it would be a waste of $250,000, because nothing will happen, as long as I can do anything about it, until Kofi Annan resigns, and the corruption ends.”