Council Set To Hear Gym Protest

Cambridge Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci has scheduled a public hearing before the City Council for November 14 to consider citizens' arguments for down-zoning Harvard-owned property on Observatory Hill.

Citizens opposed to Radcliffe's plan to construct an athletic facility for Quad residents will present complaints and discuss options to restrict Harvard's development of Observatory Hill, Richard McKinnon, assistant to the city council, said yesterday.

Vellucci called the hearing in response to citizen demands made last week that the council consider zoning by "home-rule" in Cambridge.

Above Politics

Vellucci said yesterday he arranged to schedule the hearing after the election so the issue would be taken "seriously."

"I wanted to eliminate the feeling that we were just talking, which is all people think you are doing around election time," Vellucci said.

He added that he would try his hardest to stop construction of the athletic facility.

The athletic facility would include indoor tennis courts, basketball courts and locker facilities for 100 students.

Radcliffe is approximately three weeks away from completing the design for the proposed complex and will apply for a building permit when it is completed, Burton I. Wolfman, administrative dean for Radcliffe College said yesterday.

"As soon as we are ready, we'll apply for the permit," Wolfman said.

Cambridge is relectant to grant a building permit to any organization while a down-zoning petition is under discussion, McKinnon said last week.

A citizens action group which calls itself the Neighborhood Nine submitted a petition in September to request that the Observatory Hill property be down-zoned to restrict further Harvard development in the area. The proposed athletic facility meets all of the strictest zoning regulations and could still be constructed if the area is down-zoned by the council.

Members of the newly-formed Quality of Life Committee, which split from Neighborhood Nine three weeks ago because they wished to stop construction of the facility altogether said last week however, the down-zoning petition was only a stalling tactic.

The committee's purpose is to change a state law that presently exempts academic institutions from zoning regulations. City Councilor Saundra Graham is currently drafting legislation with the committee to give Cambridge home-rule on zoning.

If the state legislature approves the proposal the law would give Cambridge the option of limiting Harvard's development in specified areas of Cambridge.

The Quality of Life Committee decided this week to wait until after the election to assure that the issue will be taken seriously, John Riseman, a member of the committee said yesterday.

Riseman added that "We want to avoid puffery and I think we will lay low until after the election.