DeGuglielmo Selects New Planner To Draw Cambridge 'Master Plan'

A private planner was named last night to draw a "master plan" for Cambridge amid charges that he will be a pawn of Harvard and M.I.T., and that no new planning is needed anyway.

The "master plan" will be a unified schedule of City development projects in all areas Cambridge needs to qualify for federal aid under programs such as Demonstration Cities.

City Manager Joseph A. DeGuglielmo '29 announced that Justin Gray, a Cambridge resident currently working for the Institute of Public Administration in New York, will draw the plan after first surveying the City.

Name Withheld

DeGuglielmo had withheld Gray's name publicly until the Council approved, 7-2, last night a request for $2500 to create Gray's new job.

Beyond this initial outlay, the City Manager said, Gray will work under a separate federal grant for planning. His plan could be ready in eight months.

Gray will consult with Harvard and M.I.T. planners, in his initial survey, though his plan can not control what Harvard does in the future.

Harold L. Goyette, planning officer for the University, attended the meeting and afterwards described Gray's eventual plan as a "context" in which Harvard could work its own projects.

Councillor Walter J. Sullivan voted against the $2500 appropriation, claiming that Gray would work for the universities and neglect the interests of the City in general. (DeGuglielmo showed Gray's name privately to the councillors last week.)

Something Fishy?

Sullivan contended that Harvard and M.I.T. were actually sponsoring Gray for the job. The City Council has no control over appointees of the City Manager, only over the funds to establish their positions and salaries.

Councillor Edward A. Crane '35 joined Sullivan in voting against the office, claiming that Gray would provide more plans in a City already surfeited with plans.

"Is any other city of only six square miles now being asked to digest the NASA project with 42 acres, the Kennedy complex with 12 acres, and--if it must be--the Inner Belt with oodles of acres?" Crane asked.

He said that a new master plan would only "dress up" old plans for expansion which the City has had since a Planning Board study in 1958. Those plans were never acted on, Crane said, and more plans would be "new labels on empty bottles."

"The time has come to call a halt to this planners' world," Crane concluded.

At the end of its meeting, the Council ordered Gray to appear next Monday for questioning