Dietz Wins Partial Victory In Court Battle With Coop

The Middlesex Superior Court yesterday gave Sheldon Dietz '41 his first taste of victory in his 18-month feud with the Harvard Cooperative Society.

Justice August C. Traveria struck down, the September 1964 decision of the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeals which permitted be Coop to build its Palmer Street annex. His decision will force the Coop to revise its plans for the unbuilt half of the annex, or else appeal to Massachusett's highest tribunal, the State Judicial Court.

"This proves we're neither crackpots nor troublemakers," Dietz exulced yesterday. But he added that he was not satisfied with pares of the decision and may appeal it himself.

The decision upholds Dietz's claim that the annex, us planned, would violate the Cambridge Zoning Ordinance. At the hearing last June, Dietz argued that the Coop's building permit was invalid because the ratio of the annex's floor area to its lot size would exceed the maximum which the ordinance allows.

"We'd be happy to submit to Court's decision, Coop attorney Philip Cromn '53 said yesterday. The Coop is preparted to reduce the annex's floor area, he explanned, by leaving out a shipment receiving room. "We would use a freight elevator next to our loading dock instead, and I don't think it would hurt our efficiency," he said.

Cromn added, however, that the Coop will appeal the decision if Dietz does so first. Since the appeals procedure could stretch through this spring, the Coop would build the annex as planned, but design it so that the receiving room could be easily removed, he said.

Dietz yesterday expressed his disappointment with the Court's acceptance of the Coop's planned truck loading deck. "I'm still thinking about an appeal," he said, "but I have decided to distribute a 'white paper' on the case next week to Harvard and M.I.T. Faculty members."