University Place Needs Council Okay

If the Cambridge City Council approves its request for a set of street changes across from the Mt. Auburn St. post office next week, Harvard wil receive the final green light for its massive office and luxury condominium project dubbed "University Place" after only two years of negotiations on the $25 million project's design.

"Only two years" might seem like a contradiction in terms, but Richard Friedman, of the Boston-based Carpenter and Co. development firm, has been waiting more than twice that long for a similar go-ahead signal for his company's $60 million business complex, planned for a parcel of land behind the Kennedy School of Government and next to the proposed University Place.

Friedman will join Harvard officials in an open hearing on the street changes at the city council next Monday because the modifications that would streamline the traffic flow into University Place would also allow the start of construction of Carpenter and Co.'s hotel-office-retail-and residential complex.

With city council authorization, ground-breaking at both projects could be held in early spring with an anticipated completion date on both sites about two years later.

"I don't prejudge the council," Friedman said, "But I am optimistic." He added that "the street changes we're talking about have always been contemplated for our project." They were recommended by a state-mandated environmental impact report released this past fall, and have also received the backing of the city planning board and the Cambridge community development department, after careful consideration by both groups.

Still, there is one potential snag remaining in Harvard's and Carpenter's plans, although most city councilors are predicting that the council will follow the recommendations of its city agencies. A group of Harvard Square businessmen has recently called on the council to pressure Harvard into adding more parking to the University Place design or finding an alternate location in the Square for about 200 existing spaces that will be lost when construction is completed.

The Carpenter and Co.'s project on Parcel 1b, previously intended as the site of the John F. Kennedy memorial library and at one time the home of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority carbarns, will include 350 public parking spaces, the same as exist there now. But the University Place complex will provide only 100 spaces during regular business hours.

That reduction has many local merchants worried that potential customers and employees will choose to avoid the Square, already known for its chronic traffic congestion. What makes the situation worse, representatives of the Harvard Square Businessman's Association say, is that Harvard, which has so far declined to add more parking to the University Place plans, also controls most of the other potential sites in the Square for additional parking.

City Councilor David Wylie said that the merchants' parking concerns will be "one of the issues" to be discussed at the open hearing. But he added that the "over-all plan for University Place has received pretty careful public scrutiny and generally passed with flying colors."

"It's likely that the council will take the recommendation of the community development department" and approve Harvard's and Carpenter's request, Wylie said.

Harvard officials have said they would consider making available 200 spaces at the Business School parking lot for public use and have promised to review their their portfolio of land holdings in the Square to find additional parking. But so far the University has come up empty in its search, and is not likely to soon succeed in replacing the 200 spaces, Harvard spokesmen say.

"We are in a position where we have to balance competing interests," said Jacqueline O'Neill, assistant to the vice president for government and community affairs. She said Harvard has to be extremely careful to avoid angering local residents while attempting to ease the merchants' parking concerns.

For now Harvard's top priority is securing city council approval for technical improvements to the streets around University Place and Parcel 1b.

Possible Changes

If the council goes along with Harvard, Nutting Rd., a small dead end street in the middle of the University Place site, would be closed; and Bennett St., a small private way, would also be transferred to the city for widening, a community development department official said.