JFK Library Corp Proposes Park For MBTA Yards

The Kennedy Library Corporation recently proposed construction of a five-acre memorial park on the Bennett St. MBTA Yard site originally intended for the entire Kennedy Library complex.

Frank Keefe, director of state planning, said yesterday the library corporation submitted a plan to the Dukakis administration to divide the 12-acre site into three parcels: 2.2 acres for Harvard's Kennedy Institute of Politics and School of Government; approximately four acres for commercial development; and the park.

Gov. Michael S. Dukakis finds the general plan acceptable because it seems to have support from Cambridge community groups and Harvard, Keefe said.

The library corporation decided last November to build the entire library complex at the University of Massachustts Columbia Point campus in Dorchester, abandoning the Cambridge sit the state had purchased from the MBTA for $6 million and given later to the federal government.

Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for community affairs, said yesterday that certainty about the use of the remainder of the site might delay any of Harvard's plans for building on its part of the site.

"You like to know who your neighbors are going to be," Moulton said.

No funds are yet available for the park, but the library corporation has estimated that construction costs will be less than $1 million.

Neither the library corporation nor Harvard now plans to contribute any funds for the park, and Keefe said yesterday he does not know whether federal, state, or other funds can be found to landscape the site.

Both the state and the library corporation have a vested interest in using the MBTA site, since the state spent $6 million to buy the site, and then spent another $20 million to relocate the MBTA rail yards and repair facilities.

The library corporation gave Harvard $10 million to endow the Kennedy Institute of Politics, and Burke said yesterday the corporation "has a desire" to see the institute and the government school located at the Bennett St. site as it had originally planned.