City's Clearance Project To Begin in Six Months

Immediate plans for urban redevelopment in Cambridge do not appear endangered by proposed cutbacks in the budget of the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency, members of the City Council said yesterday.

Demolition of the Rogers block on Main St. is expected to begin within the next six months as a result of action taken Monday by the Council. Another redevelopment program at the "Riverview block" on Mt. Auburn St. is now "well-advanced in the planning stage" and is said to be "about two years" behind the Rogers project.

Federal budget cutbacks should not affect these two projects. However, they represent only the very beginning of a vast program for urban renewal for Cambridge, the remainder of which will be seriously jeopardized by budget reductions, in the opinion of the Citizens Advisory Committee.

The Committee has sent copies of a letter expressing its "deep concern" over the matter to a number of influential Congressmen.

Robert R. Duncan, a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee, recently outlined some of the long-range plans for City redevelopment. He listed a series of subcommittees at work on such varied problems as traffic, off-street parking, neighborhood rehabilitation, economic development and community facilities.

The University, according to President Pusey, is very interested in the project which may induce more faculty members to live in Cambridge and thereby help to create the mythical "academic community." At present many faculty members prefer to live in other more attractive suburban areas.

Because local commercial interests and both landlords and tenants in buildings likely to be selected for demoition opposed the whole idea of renewal, the Rogers project has spent seven stormy years in the planning stage.

At present, opposition is said to be much more spotty, and to apply only to specific projects.

Federal grants and loans will supply two-thirds of the nearly $400,000 necessary to complete the Rogers project. The rest of the money must come from the city itself.

When the site has been cleared, it will be sold to a redeveloper, probably for light industry or commercial use.

The official plans and papers for the Rogers project were sent early this week to the New York office of the HHFA, preliminary to the actual receipt of Federal aid.