Harvard Blair Pond Housing Plan Vetoed by Resources Commission

Harvard's plan to build low-income housing on the Blair Pond site in Cambridge Hills came to a grinding halt late Wednesday night as the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources denied the University's request to fill the pond.

The University, owner of the land on which the pond stands, announced last spring that the pond would be filled to make way for a four-story housing development of 248 units.

There has been a substantial amount of community opposition to the project. Residents of the immediate area of the proposed project claim that the traditional suburban make-up of the area will be destroyed, while residents of poorer Cambridge sections have argued that the housing will benefit primarily middle-income people.

Flood Control

The decision to deny filling rights, issued by Natural Resources Commissioner Arthur W. Brownell, said that Blair Pond is essential to proper flood control in the Mystic River watershed and that filling it could possibly lead to extensive flooding in the area.

Both Edward S. Gruson, assistant to the President for Community Affairs, and Peter L. Hornbeck, associate professor of Landscape Architecture, termed this reasoning inaccurate.

"It's a question of an increase of one-half inch in the level of the worst possible flood that could occur in the Mystic River area. It just wouldn't make a hell of a lot of difference to build on the site," Gruson said.

Hornbeck, who has done extensive work in ecology, said, "In terms of ecological upset, the effects of filling in the pond would be negligible, especially since the area involved is only 1.5 acres."

Gruson said that he does not consider the project dead and "will make every effort to see to it that those things which the Natural Resources Commission finds objectionable will be rectified, and the project can continue." Brownell emphasized in his report that any plans for construction that "will not increase or aggravate flooding" would be welcome.

The housing project proposed for the Blair Pond site came about as a result of the University's Wilson Report issued two years ago. The report stated that Harvard should act as the catalyst in the construction of low and moderate-income housing in the Cambridge community.

In a letter distributed to members of the area, Richard M. Cahill, a resident, stated, "The present proposal means a possible 1000 additional people will be attracted to the area daily, which does not include visitors and the many other public service employees necessary to provide the inhabitants of the new project with essential services."

Opposition in the Blair Pond area has taken much the same tact as that expressed in the letter, and most residentsfeel that their neighborhood will some how "be cheapened" by the presence of low-income people in the area.

On the other hand, opposition has come from local tenant groups such as the Cambridge Tenants Organizing Committee who say that the prospect will serve middle-income, rather than low-income people.

A spokesman for the Cambridge Tenants Organizing Committee, Peter Werworth, said, "The fact that the project is so far away from any shopping centers and public transportation will almost insure that the people who live in the project will be middle-income. Poor people just do not have cars."