SHADY HILL HOUSING

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The CRIMSON of Wednesday, Oct. 26, 1966, contains an article on the Sachs Estate [Shady Hill area] which is untrue in almost every respect. The facts are these:

1. The University has no specific plans for how the Sachs Estate should be developed. It has studied the site for more than 12 years but has found no way to develop housing that would utilize the site and still be acceptable to those neighbors who demand that nothing but single family houses be built there. The University is currently and will continue to study a variety of proposals to meet the crushing need for faculty housing.

2. Financing a possible development on the Sachs Estate has never been discussed at any level of the University, including the Corporation, as far as I know. The possibility of utilizing a private developer is still open.

3. The optimum number of housing units which might be built on the Sachs Estate has not been agreed on by the "experts."

5. There is no such thing as "low cost" housing in today's market.

6. No date has ever been discussed for beginning construction. Obviously construction cannot be considered without a viable plan and a zoning change.

7. It is true that Harvard is under considerable pressure from the City of Cambridge to increase the supply housing by developing the Sachs Estate which has been vacant and unused for more than 15 years. City planners have pinpointed this property for "221-d-3" low-income housing for relocation of families to be displaced by the Inner Belt. A meeting has already been called between the City and the University to discuss this possibility. It has been pointed out that the Inner Belt dislocation will be so terrible in Cambridg that the City might well take the Sachs Estate for this purpose. Many people believe the University is under moral as well as political pressure to develop housing on the Sachs Estate as soon as possible. Charles P. Whitlock   Assistant to the President   for Civic and Governmental Relations