Coop Annex Controversy Taken to Court

Sheldon Dietz '41 and the Harvard Co-operative Society will appear in Massachusetts Superior Court this week to see if plans for the Coop's new $2,000,000 annex meet zoning law requirements.

At issue is whether the plans provide adequate loading bay facilities. Dietz believes that delivery trucks will not have enough room to maneuver and will therefore slow down traffic on Palmer St. The plans, he maintains, therefore violate a 1962 Cambridge ordinance which says loading facilities must be designed so as not to cause "unreasonable impediment to traffic."

Coop officials believe that the loading bay they plan to build will meet the ordinance requirement. Both the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeals and the City Solicitor have agreed and have approved the plans.

The case, which is listed third on the court's docket, will probably be heard sometime early in the week. Philip M. Cronin '52, the attorney for the Coop, estimated yesterday that the hearing will last about a day and that it will be several weeks before a decision is handed down. The side which loses will probably appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

Cronin said yesterday that, even if the Coop loses the case, work on the new annex will not be delayed, because the annex is to be built in two phases. Phase I is now under construction. When it is finished sometime next fall, the Coop will transfer its textbook section there, tear down the present Coop annex, and build Phase II of the new annex

Since the loading bay is to be located in the second phase, the Coop will be able to modify its plans for the bay anytime before construction of the second phase begins in the fall.

This week's court hearings come after a long legal battle over the loading bay requirements. Early in 1964, the Coop requested the Board of Zoning Appeal to grant a variance waiving entirely the City's requirements for loading bay facilities. Dietz opposed the variance and the request was turned down.

The Coop then revised its plans to include a bay but Dietz has maintained ever since that the proposed facilities are inadequate.