New MTA Manager May Allow Sale Of Storage Yards to University

The new general manager of the Metropolitan Transit Authority said yesterday that he would not object to selling the controversial Bennet St. switching and storage yards to the University, if the MTA could find another base of operations and vacate the land.

Thomas J. McLernon, who took office in July, told the CRIMSON he was studying the possibility of using other Cambridge areas and rerouting traffic the Yards now carry. Negotiations for the property might begin in "a couple of months," he asserted.

The site between Memorial Drive and Mt. Auburn St. opposite Kirkland House has long been the University's first choice for the location of a tenth House called for in the Program for Harvard College. Since February, 1958, the Administration has offered to buy the land for $4 million, a price which includes five dollars per square foot, plus an additional million as a bonus payment.

Rerouting Planned

The MTA is interested in making a profit on the yards, and the sooner, the better, McClernon asserted. He noted tentative plans to reroute some buses through the tunnel under Harvard Square and to transfer all rolling stock now operating out of the Bennett St. yards to other terminals and garages in the area.

In the past several Cambridge City Councilors have objected to sale of the site to the University, which is exempt from property taxes, because they said it would take taxable land off the city rolls. However, McLernon stated that the MTA has every right to sell and that "Cambridge has no call on the land."

Besides the bonus offer, the University has set forth other proposals to offset civic opposition caused by the tax situation. The Administration said it would construct not only the one (or perhaps two) new Houses, but also several commercial buildings--a garage, apartment houses, or a bank--which would make at least half the disputed area taxable property.

Such an action would bring several thousand dollars more in revenue to Cambridge each year and constitute a major improvement over the MTA, which pays no taxes at all on the property.

Lowell Negotiation

In 1929, when he established the House system, President Lowell negotiated an agreement with the city which exempted from taxation all land "standing in the name of the University and used for academic purposes." The MTA controversy spurred Cambridge legislators last winter to propose a bill which threatened that agreement.

Two members of the Mass. House of Representatives, John R. Sennott, Jr. (Dem.) and John J. Campbell (Dem.), proposed a bill which would have levied upon the University the equivalent of 99 years in property taxes if it had purchased the Bennett St. yards. The bill later died in committee.

A proposal more favorable to the City's tax structure than the University offer appeared in April, 1959. At that time, a group of Philadelphia insurance companies declared their interest in erecting a $50 million apartment house on the site. Although this venture would have brought the entire disputed area under taxation, it eventually fell through.