Court Postpones Fight On Local NASA Bid

Cambridge businesses suffered another defeat Thursday in their fight to prevent the City from acquiring land in Kendall Square under urban renewal laws for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's $61 million electronics laboratory.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that their suit to have the court declare that the area does not qualify for renewal was "premature." The Cambridge City Council and federal and state agencies have yet to give their final approval to the project. Only after these steps have been taken can the businesses file suit, the court said.

There are 95 firms in the 42 acres designated for NASA and an adjoining private development. The firms, grouped together as the "Committee for the Preservation of Cambridge Industry," claims that the area is not "blighted" and that urban-renewal laws are only being used as a convenient vehicle to acquire their land.

The businessmen now face two legal alternatives, according to John J. Brennan Jr., the group's leader. They can either refile their suit in the Massachusetts courts once the Kendall Square renewal project has been officially approved, or they can immediately enter a suit in the federal courts. "Right now, we're trying to decide whether the federal courts would also deem it premature," Brennan said yesterday.