More from Allston re: Harvard

Residents doubt Harvard community benefits plans
By Elana Zak, Correspondent
Thu Apr 03, 2008, 10:35 AM EDT
Allston-Brighton TAB

Allston-Brighton - Residents expressed skepticism of the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Harvard University coming through on community benefits, such as community housing, this week at an additional Harvard-Allston community task force meeting to further discuss the Institutional Master Plan.

“What has happened to the community benefits?” said Allston resident Tom Lally at the task force’s meeting Wednesday, April 2. “How can we trust the BRA and Harvard for the new institutional master plan? We trusted you in November and December … I don’t want us to keep pushing that [community benefits] off.”

Community benefits could include things such as more restaurants, retail stores and community housing for the neighborhood. Lally said that he is still waiting for the benefits from Harvard’s new Science Complex. A presentation on community benefits was put on hold for next week due to time running out at last week’s task force meeting.

The extra meeting was planned so that the task force and others would be able to discuss and comment on the IMP. The BRA plans to collect residents’ questions and comments by April 25 in order to start creating its Scoping Determination, a document that tells Harvard what concerns it has to address in its final master plan, in May. Yet the residents’ and task force members’ underlying frustration continually came out at the meeting.

“Look at what Harvard has brought to the community so far,” said task force member Bruce Houghton. “They’ve devastated everything. … I don’t have trust.”

Task force Chairman Ray Mellone and Gerald Autler, senior project manager and planner for the BRA, both tried to keep the meeting on target. At the start of the meeting, Mellone stated the purpose of the additional meeting was to “figure out the critical issues.”

“We expect Harvard to be a full partner on a huge range of issues,” Autler said in reaction to residents’ dissatisfaction with the university. “I understand people’s frustration with Harvard. I didn’t want to spend this meeting talking about that.”

Worries about building height
Another concern brought up was the potential height of future Harvard buildings. Michael Hanlon, a task force member, said he did not want Western Avenue to become filled with incredibly tall buildings, creating a canyon effect.

“What’s important tonight is to tell us your thoughts about height. That’s a valuable comment,” said Michael Glavin of the BRA. “Those are things we need to ask Harvard to answer.”