Harvard May Need New Zoning to Use Western Ave. Site

The city of Boston this week fired another salvo at Harvard over the University's plan to buy an Allston-Brighton office building, just as administration officials worked to repair relations with the community that have been strained by the impending purchase.

Don Gillis, director of the Office of Neighborhood Services, told Harvard officials in a meeting this week that he believed Harvard would have to secure a special zoning permit before using the building at 230 Western Ave., part of which the Business School hopes to use for office space.

"Our position in that any institutional use of the building would require community review and zoning board approval," said Gillis.

Harvard officials yesterday said University lawyers had advised them that no zoning change would be necessary since the Business School would be occupying only a small part of the building.

Nonetheless, "if it turns out we have to get a conditional use permit, we'll get it," said Marilyn Lyng O'Connell, Harvard's co-director of community relations.

A meeting between Harvard representatives and officials from Boston's inspectional services department, which has jurisdiction over zoning matters, is scheduled for Monday, O'Connell said.

Inspectional services representatives could not be reached for comment.

Harvard's plans to purchase the building originally spurred controversy because the University did not mention the possibility that it might buy the site in its master plan for development, which the city approved in April.

Members of the Allston-Brighton Planning and Zoning Advisory Committee (PZAC) protested the building purchase last week and charged that Harvard had not acted in good faith during the master plan process, which requires large institutions to chart their growth and development plans for a five-year period.

Harvard officials this week held a forum with Allston-Brighton residents to discuss the purchase of the building, part of which the Business School wants to occupy while it renovates its main administration building.

In a slight concession to community demands, University officials at the meeting indicated that they might file an amendment to Harvard's master plan to accommodate the purchase of the building.

The University has maintained that the master plan required it only to disclose plans for on-campus development, while PZAC members said they viewed it as including all growth and development in the area.