Judge Dismisses Environment Suit On JFK Library

A federal district court judge dismissed a suit Wednesday by a Cambridge neighborhood group that played a role in the John F. Kennedy Library Corporation's decision to move the museum portion of the complex out of Cambridge last February.

The suit, brought by Neighborhood Ten against the federal General Services Administration, requested that all information used in an environmental impact report on the library be released.

When the library corporation decided to move the museum from Cambridge, the GSA requested that the suit be made moot because the impact statement was no longer relevant.

Neighborhood Ten disagreed and contested the GSA's request in federal court.

Gerald Gillerman '49, attorney for Neighborhood Ten, said last night that an attorney for the GSA "suggested that the suit be dismissed for mootness and it seemed to me that that suggestion solved everybody's problem."

For that reason, Gillerman said, "I withdrew the plaintiff's opposition to the government's motion to dismiss for mootness that had been filed last February."

Gillerman said he withdrew his opposition in the hope that the library corporation and the General Services Administration would recognize that the community is "anxious" to go ahead with plans to build the archives in Cambridge and the museum in Cahrlestown.

The neighborhood group sought to block the museum from coming to Cambridge because of potential pollution and traffic problems.

The library corporation is expected to make its final decision on the location for the complex on November 24.

The Neighborhood Ten suit originally brought out the disclosure that the Kennedy Library Corporation edited the draft of the impact statement, which concluded that the library would have a minimal impact on the Harvard Square area