Harvard Bid on Controversial Church Property Includes `Consideration' of Housing Proposal

Harvard's bid on controversial property for sale by St. Paul's Church "takes into consideration" proposals to use the site for low-income housing, University officials said yesterday.

St. Paul's has agreed to choose by Monday among 14 proposals submitted for the Old Rectory and an adjacent parking lot on De Wolfe St. behind Quincy House. Each proposal contains a description of the would-be developer's plans for the site, as well as a bid.

All of these must conform to a "Request for Proposal" (RFP) issued by St. Paul's building committee. The RFP, which only recently became public, specifies that "the criteria for selection [among the proposals] will be mainly price. Some attention, however, will be given to the type of development proposed, experience and qualifications of the developer, and to the developer's financial strength."

Two local associations are upset that the building committee did not include further restrictions in the RFP. The St. Paul's Social Responsibility Committee (SRC), including Adams House co-master Jana Kiely, had lobbied the church to consider only proposals that include low-to-moderate-income housing in their plans for the site, and the Banks St. Neighborhood Association had pressed for restrictions on the size and heightof construction that would be permitted.

Harvard spokesman Kathy Spiegelman said theHarvard proposal "takes into consideration thepossibility of [including] some low-income orbelow-market-rate housing," but said she would notcomment further on the proposal until St. Paul'sannounced its decision on Monday.

"We're very mindful of the fact that there is agood number of people in the community" who wantto bring low-income housing to the site, saidSpiegelman.

Members of the Banks St. Association and theHarvard Square Defense Fund said they are stilldissatisfied with St. Paul's plans to raze itschoir school and student center and replace themwith a single, more spacious building.

The Historical Commission declared the choirschool "preferably preserved" in October, imposinga six-month delay on its demolition and requiringthe church to commission an alternative proposalthat would allow the two structures to remainstanding. However, the Commission cannot stopdemolition after the six-month period expires inApril.

Last night parishioner Robert Bentley '38presented two petitions to the CambridgeHistorical Commission, asking the body todesignate the choir school and the rectory acrossthe street "historical landmarks." As such, theirdestruction would be illegal. The petitionsrequire the Historical Commission to hold hearingson the subject at its March meeting.

Father John Boles said the Rectory, unlike thedilapidated Choir School, is safe from demolition.He said only one of the 14 proposals consideredincludes plans to destroy the building