Citizens Meet Harvard Officials About University Growth Plans

Representatives of the Office of Government and Community Affairs and the University Planning Office explained Harvard's long-range plans for development last night, responding to questions from a Cambridge residents' association.

Questions were specifically leveled at the Interim Report of the University Planning Office, released in June, which outlined Harvard's long-range alternatives and reiterated boundaries outside of which it will not purchase additional private property before 1980.

The question and answer session took place at a general meeting of the Neighborhood 9 Association, an association representing residents of an area bounded by Mass Ave., Concord Ave., and Fresh Pond.

Several citizens expressed mixed reactions to the Harvard policy. "I greet this plan with gratitude but with worry and suspicion," George H. Carter, a Cambridge resident said.

Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for community affairs, described the session as an attempt to begin a working relationship with the communities in which Harvard owns property. He said he envisions a process by which community representatives would meet with Harvard officials to determine land use and details of expansion.

Michael Mazur, a Cambridge resident, asked why the University had not come to the community before establishing those areas in which Harvard would still consider purchasing property. "Why not form a liason with the community before the development planning starts?" he asked. "Afterwards, it is only compromise."

Other members of the audience expressed suspicion at a long-range plan which is expected to last for six years. One resident cautioned that a five-year plan was too unrealistic. Of the thirty years he had lived in the neighborhood, he said, any given five years showed little change, but over the thirty years the changes had been substantial.

Moulton said that it is important to emphasize that the plan is a "living process" which will change with time and community involvement.

Harold L. Goyette, director of the Office of Planning, told the residents that Harvard's plan to stabilize its enrollment would greatly reduce the pressure for future development.

Goyette explained that there are plans for the construction of an indoor swimming pool on Observatory Hill.

A. Topliffe Sawyer '52, president of the Neighborhood 9 Association, suggested the use of open land ratios to determine future development. "If we could establish a ratio, so that any developed land would be balanced by land returned to an open state, then at least we could preserve the nature of the area," he said.