Developers Must Compromise Over Brattle Square Project

Club Casablanca may be moving to make way for a pair of office developments and a shop-lined "Brattle Walk," if the developers can steer past a dilatory city agency, two state offices, and a group of neighborhood activists who have already extracted some concessions.

Cherry, Webb and Touraine (CWT), a women's clothing chain, and its partner, the Landvest development firm, have joined Brattle Square Associates in a plan to build twin office/retail complexes next to Brattle Square.

For now, they appear to be snagged at the Planning Board stage of the design review process, but their backers still express confidence that they will get permission to build.

The two projects would flank a pedestrian walkway through their block from Brattle St. to the part of Mt. Auburn St. opposite the Charles Hotel. Architects of the project have said they hope this "Brattle Walk" will create more "public space" and make it easier for shoppers to reach Charles Square boutiques from the main Harvard Square shopping district.

Brattle Square Associates wants to demolish the Casablanca restaurant's current site to make room for the complex. The restaurant would relocate--murals and all--to the front of the same building.

Designs for the projects contain less parking and higher rooftops than city law requires. Consequently, the developers must get special permission from several city agencies, including the Planning Board, before they may build.

CWT offers to meet only half the normal parking requirement for a project of its size. To justify this move to city and state agencies, the developers argue that people using the buildings will take the "T" more often and that too much parking will exacerbate the area's traffic problem.

Activist Gladys Gifford, a member of the city board charged with over-seeing development in Harvard Square, called this argument "naive, just whistling Dixie." The T cannot get people out of their cars, she said, and giving transportation alternatives for employees will not help shoppers.

The Planning Board last considered the two applications on January 5, when it put off a decision by tabling the vote. If the board does not rule by March 5, the developers must either submit fresh applications or drop their plans entirely.

Passing The Buck?

Planning Board Chair Paul Dietrich defended the board's delay, saying members simply "need more data to make a decision." Others, including Gifford, say they may be passing the buck to a state agency.

Because the Red Line tunnel passes under part of CWT's land, half of its site is considered state property. Therefore the developer must be approved by the state environmental agency before building. CWT lawyer Donald Connors said "state approval won't be a problem," but Gifford countered that "they're not home free."

The state Secretary of Environmental Affairs has given the CWT developers tentative permission to build--on condition that they provide more parking or scale down their building.

The Planning Board may be waiting for this state agency to make a final decision on the developers' obligations, said Gifford. She charged that the Board wants the fiscal benefits of development for the city, but does not want to take responsibility for projects that upset neighborhood activists.

Gifford, a former president of the preservationist Harvard Square Defense Fund, said she fears that the existing proposals will "canyonize" Brattle Square.

CWT/Landvest has already made concessions to its neighbors, notably by offering to replace the windows in neighboring Waverly Hall with soundproof glass. Even antidevelopment City Councillor Alice K. Wolf acknowledged, "With the physical environment, they have made some compromises and done a good job."

Conceding to Wolf's gripes about evening construction noise, CWT developer Dan Calano has changed his plan to include only ten nights of construction. Also, CWT will provide use of its proposed garage to the public at night, as well as subsidizing T passes for employees in its buildings.

The developments are among five slated to go up in the southwest portion of Harvard Square. In addition, the Kennedy School of Government plans a new annex; a Boston development concern plans to replace the Harvard Motor Lodge with an office building; and local developer Louis DiGiovanni plans a similar structure for Mt. Auburn St., on the former site of the Picadilly Filly bar, the Blue Parrot and the Ha'penny Pub.

The southwestern area is the last major Harvard Square parcel to face redevelopment. Comparatively speaking, there has been less resistance to development plans there because the existing buildings have little historic significance.