Zoning Change Passes Hurdle

A Cambridge zoning change which would allow Harvard Square developers to provide less parking space and would increase the amount of commercial space available passed its last hurdle last night before facing a vote of the Cambridge City Council.

At a special public hearing, the ordinance committee of the council voted to accept the proposed Harvard Square Overlay District zoning plan, which also creates an advisory committee to review development plans. The entire council must approve the plan for it to become effective.

The proposed zoning change would allow more first-floor commercial use of buildings in Harvard Square and would limit the height of all new structures to 60 feet.

Developers would also be allowed to provide 50 percent fewer parking spaces than are mandated by current zoning laws, if they pay the city a fee.

The proposed zoning change would continue to bar fast food restaurants, discos, pet shops, massage parlors, and mortuaries from operating in the Square.

Forty community representatives and residents attended the hearing at City Hall where only six of the nine city councilors on the committee heard testimony on the proposal. Despite a poster campaign against the zoning change by area resident and tenant activist Michael Turk, only two people testified against it while three supported it.

The law also creates an advisory committee which would oversee Square development. The panel--composed of representatives of Square businesses, local institutions, and the surrounding neighborhoods--would review and advise city agencies on all new development in the Square but would have no formal powers.

The zoning amendment is designed "to respond to the unique problems and pressures for change particular to the Harvard Square area," the proposal says. "The regulations provide for more careful public scrutiny of development proposals that may alter the established urban form of the Harvard Square area."

The proposal's opponents complained that the relaxed parking requirements would likely leave Harvard Square with drastically inadequate parking facilities. It would become a "parking night-mare," Turk said.

Councilor Alice K. Wolf objected that only two of the eight members of the advisory panel would be community representatives. She suggested that the board include at least four residents from the surrounding area, one for each of the adjacent neighborhoods.

But proponents of the amendment lauded it because they said it would provide a forum for public scrutiny of new developments while allowing developers opportunity for expansion.

"There is something for everyone," Harvard's Associate Vice President for State and Community Affairs Jacqueline O'Neill said at the hearing last night. "No one particular interest group gets whatever he or she wants and that's probably the definition of fairness."

"We feel that the development proposals are long overdue and we applaud them," said a representative of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, a neighborhood group.

In accordance with state law, the city council must act on the zoning amendment by July 14, after they receive a forthcoming report from the city planning board. A two-thirds vote of the full council is needed for approval.