Residents Request Moratorium Extension

In a meeting Monday night, the Cambridge City Council moved toward an eight month extension of a moratorium on development in Cambridge’s Riverside neighborhood that was designed to prevent Harvard from going forward on its plans to build a new art museum.

The petition, sponsored by 16 residents of Riverside, was sent by the council to its development and ordinance committees for preliminary review.

Several council members stated general support for the proposal. Councilor Kathleen L. Born said that the moratorium extension would likely return to the council’s agenda for final adoption in December.

The prohibition on development, informally known as the “Loose Moratorium,” has been in effect for a large portion of the Riverside neighborhood since Oct. 2000. As originally approved, the moratorium would last for 18 months—until next April.

The moratorium prevents Harvard from building on two of its last remaining relatively undeveloped tracks of land in Cambridge. These properties are located at the intersection of Grant and Banks Street—the present site of a parking lot near Mather House—and at the intersection of Memorial Drive and Western Avenue—the present site of Mahoney’s Garden Center.

Community opposition to Harvard’s proposals to build an art museum on the property now occupied by Mahoney’s led residents to request the original development moratorium last year.

According to a Harvard representative, the University has no opposition to the requested extension, particularly because it would not be ready to begin construction on the art museum when the moratorium currently expires in April.

“We were quite clear [during the discussion last fall] that there was no way that we’d put a shovel in the ground for at least 24 months,” said Travis A. McCready, Harvard’s director of community relations for Cambridge.

The moratorium was enacted to allow Riverside residents time to create a committee to plan future development of their neighborhood.

Riverside residents now said that because the city took eight months to establish the committee after the moratorium’s adoption, the time lost should be added as an extension.

“We just wanted a true 18 months,” said Riverside Study Committee member Cob Carlson.

Since it began meetings in April, the 20-person committee has been holding twice-monthly regular meetings. At a special mid-July meeting the committee “invited all members of the Riverside community to attend and share their ideal vision for Riverside. That meeting was attended by over 100 residents.

“The committee is going well,” said Carlson. “There are some hot spots [of potential development] that we are focusing on.”

The Mahoney’s site has received particularly strong attention by the committee. Many Riverside residents have strong opposition to the placement of the museum on the site—a site many in the community have said they believe should remain open space.

“The truth is that there is a slim slim number who might say that a museum is a good use for that site,” said Carlson.

Given such widespread opposition, the committee’s consultant said that he currently believes any final recommendations will almost certainly suggest a far different use for the site that what Harvard has proposed.

“As a betting man, I’d say they’re pretty opposed to a museum on that site,” said David Lee of Boston’s Stull and Lee consulting firm. “I’m optimistic there can be some acceptable set of uses that would be agreed on for the site.”

While McCready serves as Harvard’s on the committee, many committee members have expressed reluctance to allow the University to participate too heavily in the committee’s work.

While Harvard did make a presentation at one committee meeting in early July, members were hesitant to allow the University to make further presentations and instead asked for its representatives to respond in written reports.

One member of the committee said that this decision was based on Harvard’s attitude in its earlier presentations.

“It very clear from the tone of [Harvard’s] presentation that [they are saying] ‘we’re going to build a museum if you like it or not,’” said Joan Qualls Harris, a Riverside resident and committee member. “Harvard shouldn’t treat us like we’re not here.”

Harvard’s representative said that he believed the University’s active role in the committee was important.

“We want to be in there,” McCready said. “You don’t have a dialogue over paper.”

Lee said that he envisioned that the committee would propose rezoning requests for several significant pieces of property in Riverside as part of its final product. The committee will continue its meetings at least through December.

—Staff writer Daniel P. Mosteller can be reached at dmostell@fas.harvard.edu.