Judge Dismisses Riverside Lawsuit

A Middlesex Superior Court judge dismissed a suit yesterday filed by a local resident who is seeking to block Harvard’s plans to construct graduate student housing on Memorial Drive.

This lawsuit, filed by Cantabrigian Kevin Hill in February, had put a halt on the construction plans until now, but Mary H. Power, Harvard’s senior director of community relations, said that the University intends to proceed now that the suit has been dismissed.

Though Hill threatened yesterday to pursue further legal action, Power said that preparation for the University’s construction is expected to commence as soon as this summer.

The plot, on the corner of Memorial Drive and Western Avenue, which Harvard used to lease to Mahoney’s Garden Center, has been a point of contention between the University and local residents for years.

In October 2003, the City Council, after much discussion, unanimously approved a compromise allowing Harvard to expand on its two sites in the Riverside neighborhood. In exchange, Harvard will provide the city with affordable housing units and a public park along Memorial Drive.

And last December the city Planning Board approved Harvard’s plans to build a total of 328 units of graduate student housing on the two sites in Riverside—the former Mahoney’s plot, and the area near Mather House.

Hill’s family resides adjacent to the plot of land on Memorial Drive.

After ascertaining that Hill was neither an attorney nor a trustee of the land, the judge threw out the case in a hearing yesterday.

“You don’t have standing,” the judge told Hill.

Hill has criticized the plans, saying Harvard’s proposed new buildings will block his family’s view of the Charles River and arguing that their needs are being ignored.

“Harvard and the city is relying on the fact that we don’t have money so we can’t hire an attorney,” Hill told The Crimson yesterday. “They’re not beating us on the merits of the case.”

Hill said yesterday he plans to file suit again if Harvard follows through with its building plans, challenging the validity of the process under which the December 2003 deal was negotiated.

“If you build them, you’re going to force me to attack your deal,” said Hill.

His dismissed suit was originally carried forth against the Planning Board for its approval of the construction. Harvard then successfully moved to be added as a party in the suit.

“We’re glad that the Superior Court confirmed the unanimous decision of the Cambridge Planning Board by dismissing the case,” Power said.

The city’s legal department could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Hill said that Harvard should negotiate with abutters and “not steal their views and diminish their property.”

But Power said that the deal between Harvard and Cambridge was struck fairly, emphasizing the benefits Harvard provided to the community.

“The project is the result of many years of community dialogue,” Power said. “It’s the result of the council’s unanimous support of an agreement and the unanimous support of the Planning Board for the project.”

A disgruntled Hill conversed with supporters in court following the hearing yesterday, causing the judge to interrupt the proceedings to threaten Hill with contempt of court.

—Brendan R. Linn and Jessica R. Rubin-Wills contributed to the reporting of this story. —Staff writer Robin M. Peguero can be reached at peguero@fas.harvard.edu.