Harvard Plans Cast Shadow on Boston City Council Election

The Harvard name has long been bandied about in Cambridge political debate. Now, the University embarks upon the largest expansion in its 371-year history, it is entering the world of politics across the river as well.

Tuesday’s Boston City Council election pits Gregory J. Glennon, a 32-year-old assistant district attorney, against Mark S. Ciommo, a lifelong resident who has been active in community service. The winner will replace Boston City Councillor Jerry P. McDermott, who announced in May that he would not be seeking reelection.

Last month, Harvard received approval from the city for a 589,000-square-foot science complex, slated to house Harvard’s Stem Cell Institute. The project is the first part of a 50-year campus expansion into Allston that could eventually include an art center and new undergraduate housing.

With construction of the $1 billion science complex looming, both Glennon and Ciommo have said that the expansions of Harvard and other local schools will dominate their tenure.

“The number one issue facing our community has to be the institutional expansion,” Ciommo said. “They are gobbling up more and more land, encroaching on the residential areas of our neighborhoods.”

But despite their campaign statements, the candidates will likely have little power over these expansions if elected. The only entity with the ability to curtail Harvard’s activity is the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), an independent city agency that oversees development projects.

During a debate in October, the two candidates criticized the current Boston government for rubber-stamping Harvard’s plans without securing anything in return.

“We’ve gotten no community benefits written in stone, it’s a joke,” Glennon said. “People are being driven out by a process that doesn’t respect their concerns.”

Glennon said his record prosecuting drug dealers has prepared him to take on City Hall bureaucrats. He favors creating a new planning board independent of the BRA, saying that the Oct. 3 meeting when the BRA approved Harvard’s science project showed that the agency had lost touch with the needs of residents.

“It wasn’t a hearing. It was like a kangaroo court. It was something out of a banana republic,” Glennon said. “It was this formality that they went through to satisfy the rules and regulations.”

It is precisely those rules and regulations that will inhibit the ability of Tuesday’s winner to act. City politicians have no formal role in the planning negotiations, which are limited to the property holders, the BRA, and the Harvard Allston Task Force.

Task Force Chairman Ray Mellone said that the candidates’ promises to impact the development process might be hard to keep once elected.

“Both candidates seem to be talking about all the university expansions, but they don’t seem to have a clue as to how it can be handled,” he said. “There’s a lot to this council race that seems to be more rhetoric than reasonable.”

Allston resident and task force member Rita DiGesse, who supports Harvard’s presence in her community, also said she was skeptical about how effective either candidate would be if elected.

“I don’t know what these politicians can do if the higher ups aren’t with them,” DiGesse said. “They can only do as much as they can and they can’t stop it.”

Harvard officials declined to comment on Glennon and Ciommo, but said that the University had a good record of incorporating local government in the planning process.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said that working with the communities has always been a priority in campus expansions.

“When we do our expansion of universities, we always work with the communities,” Menino said. “That’s something I’ll continue to be consistent on.”