Inner Belt Opponents Meet Killian, Ask that M.I.T. Alter Its Position

Leading opponents of the Inner Belt yesterday attempted to change M.I.T.'s position on the eight-lane highway.

They met with James R. Killian, chairman of the M.I.T. Corporation, and asked him to support an alternate route to the Brookline-Elm St. alignment--a path that would cut through Central Square and displace between 3000 and 5000 people. After talking with Killian for more than two hours, they came away disappointed and convinced that the Institute preferred Brookline-Elm to other possibilities.

Although the Institute has never taken a position favoring one route over another, it has previously expressed opposition to the two other routes, the only two considered as practical alternates to Brookline-Elm. The first of these, the "railroad route," runs right along the outer edge of the M.I.T. campus and would have destroyed a number of laboratories; the second, is the Portland-Albany route, is several blocks beyond the campus, but within the area where the university may someday expand.

Yesterday's meeting was an attempt to get the Institute to soften its position on the Portland-Albany route, the one now favored by opponents of Brookline-Elm. Thus far, the Institute's public resistance to this second route has not been as vigorous as its opposition to the railroad alignment.

But the Inner Belt's opponents were unable to budge Killian. According to reliable sources, Killian was skeptical about the number of jobs the Portland- Albany route would take--its supporters have said it would take only 2300 jobs, the same number that the Brookline Elm would claim, and displace 150 families as opposed to the Brookline-Elm's 1200 to 1500.

It was the first time that the Belt's opponents had met directly with Killian, and, although neither side persuaded the other to shift its position, the discussion was described as "friendly." Several of the anti-Belt leaders stayed for lunch with both Killian and M.I.T.'s new president, Howard Johnson.

Killian was also said to have reiterated M.I.T.'s pledges to help with relocation problems if the Brookline-Elm route were selected.

The meeting came at a critical juncture for the Inner Belt's opponents. Last week, Gov. John A. Volpe announced that the state would thoroughly review its previous recommendation of the Brookline-Elm St. route. But M.I.T.'s position is now considered a key factor in whether the state will reverse its position and recommend Portland-Albany.

The Belt's opponents are becoming convinced that the Institute's stand carries heavy weight at all levels of government. One man, for example, said of a recent meeting with Rex Whitton, head of the Federal Bureau of Roads: "We were in his office five minutes, and he asked what is M.I.T.'s position.