Council Approves a Lukewarm Freeze

A last-ditch compromise aimed at creating unanimity on the City Council failed last night, when the body's conservative bloc broke ranks with liberals and the business community to vote against a temporary freeze on new commercial parking spaces in the city.

The four Independents on the council--a loose coalition that usually opposes the policies of the liberal Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) majority--complained that they did not have time to examine the compromise bill that was given to them moments before the meeting's scheduled start time. The interim freeze passed the council, 5-4, despite their objections.

"I was hopeful last week that maybe we could work something out," said Councillor Sheila T Russell. "I think that in good faith we could talk about it little more."

During the past three weeks, the council has debated four different versions of the proposed ordinance. The original agreement called for the city to enact a temporary limit of 500 new spaces until the state and city work out a permanent plan to put Cambridge in compliance with the federal Clean Air Act.

The Chamber of Commerce, backed by a large group of city businesses and developers--including Harvard--supported a series of amendments that, among other things, would exempt employee and student parking.

The final freeze--a lukewarm version of the original proposal--was approved with only hesitant approval from the chamber, which lobbied to support a clause ensuring that spaces currently in operation could not be eliminated.

"The group met this morning. While it is not unanimous the majority of the group supports the amendements," said David R. Vickery, a developer and chair of the business group fighting the freeze. "It is the feeling of the majority that we need to move on the [state plan]."

"This is an item of enormous importance," said Mayor Alice K. Wolf, who until last night had been relatively silent on the issue. "What we are trying to do is work unanimously as possible with the City Council and business community to show that this City Council can move forward in a leadership role on the issues before us."

Over the summer, Cambridge signed an agreement designed to satisfy state and federal agencies concerned about enforcement of the Clean Air Act. The freeze passed last night was initially proposed in that agreement.

The agreement also ended a series of court challenges by a group of citizens who said the city was violating the provisions of the act.

Despite the Chamber of Commerce's agreement to the compromise, Independents expressed concerns that the freeze was being forced on the business community.

"I've received 20 letters from small businesses threatening to relocate. I don't know what kind of message we are sending to the business community," Independent councillor Timothy J. Toomey said in an interview. "I'd like to be reassured that the parking freeze is not going to affect businesses. We've got enough vacant buildings. We don't need more."