July 14 (Bloomberg) -- The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, acknowledging protests by relatives of Sept. 11 victims, is taking ``one last look'' at alternatives to placing a ``museum of freedom'' and art museum adjacent to the planned memorial, foundation chairman John Whitehead said.

Possible substitutes could include another spot within the 16-acre trade center site, outside the section that includes the foundations of the destroyed twin towers, or ``immediately beyond the 16 acres,'' he said.

The decision to reconsider the location of the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center came at a closed meeting of the foundation's board yesterday, and followed protests by 14 family organizations who say the institutions would bring political themes too close to the symbolic resting place of the 2,749 people killed in the 2001 terrorist attack.

``To date we haven't been able to find a place, but we will make one final effort,'' Whitehead said at a meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the state agency steering downtown redevelopment, which he also chairs.

Whitehead and development agency chairman Stefan Pryor emphasized their support for the $12 billion World Trade Center master plan, three years in the making. That plan calls for a 250,000-square-foot cultural building northwest of the memorial, surrounded to the east and north by skyscrapers and shops.

Removing the freedom center and art museum from that spot would be ``in violation'' of architect Daniel Libeskind's master plan, Whitehead said, ``but we're taking a look. We've been asked to do it. It's not likely we will find such a place, but we will make every effort to see if that would be fruitful.''

Family Coalition

About 20 members of the family coalition, loosely organized under the name ``Take Back the Memorial,'' said that Whitehead, by expressing doubt that the cultural center could be moved, was short-circuiting the review.

``I believe they got the bit in their teeth, and they want to just bull ahead, and to heck with everybody,'' said Jack Lynch, a leader of the Coalition of 9/11 Families and father of a firefighter killed in the attack. ``It's the elite trying to think for the average American,'' Lynch said.

Tom Bernstein, co-founder of the freedom center, which plans exhibits and programs on the history mankind's struggle for freedom, last week pledged to avoid ``acrimonious'' programming, to honor victims with prominent displays, and to include family members in programming decisions. The center will also be made smaller and moved farther from the twin tower footprints, said Bernstein, the president of Chelsea Piers, a Manhattan recreation complex, who is a friend and former business partner of President George W. Bush.

Whitehead said the foundation is in discussions with both the freedom center and the art museum about restricting its programming in light of family sensitivities.

``First Amendment rights are one of the subjects that make these discussions difficult,'' he said in answer to a reporter's question.

To contact the reporter on this story: David M. Levitt in New York at dlevitt@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 14, 2005 12:58 EDT