Mayor Bloomberg’s criticism of plans for the World Trade Center site sparked high-level objections yesterday, with Governor Pataki saying he was “perplexed,” the speaker of the state Assembly saying he was “outraged,” and New York’s senior senator saying Mr. Bloomberg’s position “does not make any sense.”

Over the weekend, Mr. Bloomberg disclosed his interest in ousting the developer, Larry Silverstein, from participating in the rebuilding of ground zero. Yesterday, the mayor said he envisions a cluster of multi-use buildings at the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

At a campaign appearance in the Bronx, the mayor said the old Deutsche Bank building, across the street from the World Trade Center site, should be converted into housing. Currently, a 57-story, 1.6 million-square-foot office tower is slated for construction there. He said the two office towers planned for the eastern edge of the site, which would comprise about 3.6 million square feet of combined office space, according to existing plans, should become a multi-use complex featuring a hotel, apartments, and office space.

“There’s enormous demand for housing. At the same time, our commercial vacancy rate is at the lowest of any big city in this country. Companies want to come here and expand,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “That’s wonderful news for us, but you have to satisfy both markets, and in one location you don’t want to have all of one thing. … The days of a business district that is desolate at night are long over in the development market.”

Under its charter, the Port Authority is not allowed to own housing, but Mr. Bloomberg said that document, which dates back to 1921, should not be an obstacle.

“Oh come on. That’s ridiculous,” he said in response to a question. “If they have a building, all they have to do is sell the land to the private developer and then it’s no problem to build – that’s a technicality which literally would not slow anybody down two minutes.”

As Mr. Bloomberg fleshed out redevelopment ideas, the other lawmakers who represent trade center site stakeholders reacted with surprise and consternation.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents Lower Manhattan, wrote a letter to the mayor accusing him of making “inconsistent and absurd” comments.

“Your new position will undoubtedly hurt efforts to re-establish the Lower Manhattan community as a strong commercial center,” he wrote. “In addition, considering the city’s willingness to join me in enacting the new Lower Manhattan Marshall Plan that is providing significant economic incentives to promote rapid commercial growth throughout this unique community, I found your comments to be both inconsistent and absurd.”

Mr. Silver concluded,: “Having read in recent days of your intention to take on a prominent role in Lower Manhattan redevelopment, I am not at all encouraged by this major, ill-advised policy reversal.”

Mr. Pataki, who has been quiet on the matter of the World Trade Center site since he decided to expel the International Freedom Center, released a statement saying he is “perplexed” by the mayor’s apparent change of heart with respect to office space.

“He has been a great partner from day one,” he said. “But I’m perplexed that the city now thinks that Lower Manhattan cannot support the commercial space envisioned in the site plan.”

The governor pointed out that the deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, Daniel Doctoroff, signed an agreement last November that affirmed the city’s commitment to building 10 million square feet of office space at the site. At the time, the city was also promoting the construction of more than 25 million square feet of office space on the far West Side of Manhattan.

Senator Schumer was equally upset.

“I strongly disagree with Mayor Bloomberg’s contention that we ought to reconsider the plan to build more than 10 million square feet of office space at ground zero,” he said. “New York needs jobs and economic growth above all. Jobs have been the history of this city, jobs are the future of this city. For us, office buildings are our factories. They are at the center of economic growth and job creation in New York.”

The senator said Mr. Silverstein should “demonstrate” demand for downtown office space by finding tenants for WTC 7, the Silverstein building that is nearly completed.

“I would give Larry Silverstein a chance to fill up no. 7,” he said. “If he can’t do that, then you have problems.”

A spokesman for the developer, Bud Perrone, said yesterday that Mr. Silverstein believes filling most of the office space there is “absolutely doable.”

While most stakeholders yesterday were taking the mayor’s comments very seriously, the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, attributed his comments to politics.

“It would be much more becoming for everyone to communicate and kind of go forward in some way together,” he said. “This is not the time – it’s the season to voice publicly differences of opinion because it’s the political season – but it’s not the smart legislative thing to be doing because time passes. November will come and go.”