Cantabrigians Plan Urban Development

Cambridge residents this fall are joining forces with the city's Department of Community Development in an effort to loss runaway development in and around Harvard Square.

Residents, faced with rapid commercial and residential expansion, hope to eliminate friction over Square development by offering comprehensive design plans that are acceptable to both builders and inhabitants.

Too Loose

"There is a growing concern in the city that the development process in Harvard Square is too loose," said Charles Sullivan, executive director of the Historical Commission, which is joining the efforts.

"There is something like one and a half million additional feet that are undeveloped," added J. Roger Boothe, director of urban design for the Department of Community Development. The Charles and University place developments together occupy approximately half a million feet.

The group, which includes the Harvard Square Business Association, in the past month applied for two government grants to help insure the aesthetic quality of future developments.

The proposals are for Urban design plans for the Harvard Square Overlay district, central and Winthrop Squares.

The group will learn whether their application for the Harvard Square grant is accepted by mid-November. A decision on the second grant will come in December, Competition for the money is considered heated since more than a dozen groups are applying for each grant.

The first petition requests $100,000 from the Critical Issues Fund of National Trust for Historic Preservation to support the publication of an urban design plan for the overlay district.

The district includes Quincy Square, where Mass. Ave. cuts across the Gulf Station, the Chruch street parking lot and the Brattle square area, according to Boothe.

The second applications, filed Thursday, is for a $250,000 grant from the State's City and Town Commons program to subsidize a proposal to revitalize both Winthrop and Charles Squares.

The proposals build on a February study by the Graduate School of Design, which pinpointed key sites for future development.