Tunnel Issue Unresolved

As scores of local residents and Harvard professors packed City Hall last night anticipating the most important meeting yet on Harvard’s planned government center, the Cambridge City Council offered no resolution in a battle that has lasted five years.

The council put off a vote on the University’s proposal to dig a tunnel under Cambridge Street as part of the new center. Instead, they offered only the promise of more consultants and more meetings.

The dozens of Faculty, staff and administrators attending the hearing wore blue stickers to show their support for the proposed Center for Government.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, who has made CGIS one of his pet projects, stayed for three hours, making a personal statement to the council on Harvard’s need for the tunnel and then listening as a parade of local residents attacked the plan.

Dozens of residents from the mid-Cambridge neighborhood where CGIS would be built urged the council to deny Harvard permission to dig the tunnel.

They vehemently criticized the plan for the disruption they said tunnel construction would cause in the neighborhood. Some went so far as to call the prospective site as “ground zero.”

Though they expressed strong reservations about the tunnel, as expected the city councillors decided to wait for a final determination until they get more input.

Last night councillors moved to hire an independent consultant to advise them on the technical aspects of how the tunnel would be built and how utilities would be affected.

They also voted to establish a new committee of neighborhood residents and Harvard representatives that would meet to find a compromise. But for the moment, the new panel’s composition and mandate remain unclear, and the council did not specify what role it would play in working to achieve compromise.

Councillor Marjorie C. Decker also suggested that Harvard foot the bill for a “conflict resolution” consultant who would work with community members and Harvard officials.

After hearing three hours of arguments from both sides, several councillors expressed doubt that CGIS actually requires a tunnel.

“The question of a tunnel is very much up in the air as far as I’m concerned,” said Councillor Henrietta Davis, who introduced the motion to bring in new consultants.

“I don’t intend to support this tunnel tonight,” said Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio.

Neighborhood leaders said last night they hope to reach a compromise with Harvard that would reduce the size of the CGIS building nearest to the residential area.

But Harvard’s chief community relations officer said she remains unsure whether the University could offer to construct a smaller building.

“I don’t see a lot of opportunities to alter the plans,” said Senior Director of Community Relations Mary H. Power.

Throughout the debate over CGIS and its tunnel, Harvard officials have insisted that the underground passage is a critical part of the plan to unite the government department and several related research centers in one place.

When Knowles made Harvard’s case last night, he argued that the tunnel would make the uniting of Harvard’s government resources possible.

“It’s the crucial connection that makes the complex whole,” Knowles told the council.

Several city boards have already signed off on plans for CGIS with the tunnel.

And last night Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan J. Stone told councillors that the long, thorough planning process obligated them to grant Harvard a digging permit short of “extreme circumstances.”

“This is about citizenship,” said Stone, who was attending his first city council meeting. “We have followed the rules and we have been good citizens for five years.”

Harvard officials have maintained that without the tunnel the two building’s large underground levels would be harder to use effectively. But several Cambridge residents who spoke against the tunnel argued Harvard could use the basement levels without an underground connection.

They objected to the University’s argument that the tunnel is needed to “activate” the underground space.

“As functional spaces they don’t need activation or animation,” said Laura Roberts ’74.

After the meeting Harvard officials said they had expected the council would not let the tunnel go forward last night. An easement to dig the tunnel remains the final hurdle before construction on CGIS can get underway.

By the end of the month, City Manager Robert W. Healy will report back to the city councillors on the hiring of a consultant and the formation of the new neighborhood-Harvard committee.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.