Self-Denial Into Law

Eight years ago, Harvard drew a line around the neighborhoods it touched on and then announced, magnanimously, its pledge not to expand outside that boundary.

This winter, that pledge may become law.

Cambridge's Community Development Department unveiled a plan this week to fence in Harvard, preventing it from expanding at all into most of the city's residential neighborhoods using new regulatory powers gained this year from the state legislature.

The proposed boundaries will probably be more restrictive than Harvard's self-imposed line-and even within the areas the University is allowed to expand, there will be strict controls on the type of institutional uses permitted.

Harvard and the other universities and colleges facing similar local control are less than thrilled by the prospect. "The universities just keep repeating they want everything to be 'very flexible,"' one participant in recent negotiations said.