Apartment Complex Needs Approval Of Zoning Changes by City Council

The fight against a proposed $20 million development next to the Kennedy Library site moved into the City Council last Monday.

After a four-hour hearing, the Council decided to wait for a week before voting on the zoning changes needed to permit construction of the development. The Planning Board has recommended a zoning change--opposed by Harvard--but not as great a change as the developer asked.

Under the Planning Board's recommendation, the developer--Cambridge Plaza, Inc.,--could build an apartment house-office complex with a floor space-to-land area ratio (FAR) of six. The developer had asked for an FAR of seven.

Daniel J. Rufo, president of the firm, said he would have to cut off a few top stories from each of the three towers in the complex to keep within an FAR of six. In addition, the above-ground portion (3 stories high) of a five-story garage would have to be eliminated, Rufo said.

Seven speakers--including University Planning Officer Harold L. Goyette--opposed the change in the zoning ordinance. They argued that:

* The proposed change would affect other parcels of land in the City in addition to the site of the proposed development, which would be built on a 106,000 sq. ft. site now occupied by the Baird Atomic Co. If the ordinance is amended, any developer with 80,000 sq. ft. of land could build a project twice as large as zoning laws now allow. This would create chaos, opponents said.

* An FAR of six or seven was too high for the area. As one speaker put it: "That's just too much building for the land."

* Automobile traffic from the complex would put too much pressure on streets in the Harvard Square area.

Several councillors, Daniel J. Hayes Jr., Thomas W. Danehy, and Alfred E. Vellucci questioned Goyette for an hour about Harvard's opposition to the project.

Goyette repeatedly denied that the University wanted to buy the property for use as a dormitory site. It was too far from "the existing University facilities--we don't want to step over Harvard Square," he said.

Harvard supported development of the property to add to the City's tax base, he said, "but we've been opposed to this density from the moment we saw it."

Goyette proposed that City departments and private consultants study the City's 1962 zoning ordinance to see what amendments are needed to allow for rising construction and land costs. Such a study could be made in six months, he said.

The developers said that their project would bring a tax windfall to the City, and additional parking spaces to the Harvard Square area. Under their original plans, the development would bring $750,000 a year to the City in taxes, they said. Some 700 parking spaces in their garage would be open to the general public.

But, under the planning board's recommendation, the tax income would be cut to about $600,000, and only 56 parking spaces would be public they said