Group Will Favor Harvard Land Sale

University plans to sell valuable Boston property near the Medical School to a neighborhood group received a show of support last night when citizens approved candidates on the pro-development slate.

Residents turned out in record numbers to re-elect board members favoring the project to the Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Service (NHS), despite opposition from some community activists who say Harvard is giving the group the land in exchange for political favors.

Harvard hopes to sell the land on Brigham Circle, called the "Ledge," to NHS for about $2 million, a figure some say is much too low. The group is considering building low-income housing on the site.

Development Slate

But incumbent board members soundly defeated candidates opposed to the board's involvement in development. Although no official count was released, a tally observer said board chair Kelly Farquharson won by about 120 to 60. Other members of her slate won by smaller margins.

NHS is a non-profit corporation founded in 1975 with federal funding to secure home-improvement loans from banks previously unwilling to lend credit to residents of the Mission Hill area.

The board first became involved in development in 1986 when it constructed low-income housing on land donated by the Harvard affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. At that time, The Boston Globe reported that the $800,000 gift was connected to a city decision to approve a new parking garage for the hospital.

Farquharson said the plan to buy the Ledge is contingent upon NHS's ability to put together a development plan within the next two years. She added that the board has not decided what would be built on the property.

No official agreement has been reached with Harvard, said Bruce Keary, who was re-elected last night and who sits on the subcommittee responsible for negotiations for the Ledge site. "We would like to lead the community in putting together a development team."

But some community activists have complained that the land is worth much more than the proposed sale price, adding Harvard is giving the property away in exchange for political favors.

In an open letter to residents of Mission Hill, activist Kathryn Brookins said Harvard wants to expand "medical education and research space" and will need to obtain favorable zoning regulations to do so.

"It is as if the NHS launders payoffs from the hospitals and the University," She wrote. "The city, through its zoning process, is able to extort these payoffs from our country's great hospitals and a great university."

Some members of the Mission Hill Neighborhood Association, opposed to construction of subsidized housing on the Ledge, tried to attend a meeting on March 13 with representatives of NHS and Harvard Real Estate (HRE), which manages the University's non-academic real estate, to discuss plans for the site.

The neighborhood activists were not allowed to participate, not even as observers, said Mission Hill resident June Howe. When they insisted on attending, NHS and HRE officials canceled the meeting and met again--this time behind closed doors--on March 27, according to the activists.

But, said Keary, "These meetings are delicate negotiations."