City to Decide Whether Store Misused Apartment

Cambridge's Rent Control Board will rule late this month on a camera shop's controversial use of a rent-controlled apartment in a Harvard owned building, according to examiner Donna Hurley.

Hurley's written recommendation to the Board will be based on almost four hours of testimony at an April hearing with the Cambridge Rent Control Coalition, other building tenants in the building, the camera shop's attorney, and representatives of Harvard Real Estate (HRE).

Tenants at 1306 Mass. Ave., across from Widener Library, have claimed since late last year that the camera shop, Ferranti-Dege, is illegally using a residential unit in the building. Residents said supplies are transported from apartment 209 to the shop below. In March, Harvard filed eviction papers with the board in order to remove Ferranti-Dege from the second-floor apartment.

Ferranti-Dege subsequently filed a petition for a permit to remove the apartment from Cambridge's rent-control restrictions, and thus make it available for commercial use. The shop's attorney requested that the rent-controlled status of apartment 209 be transferred to its old office in an apartment at 8 Plympton St., another Harvard-owned building which used to house the store.

The rent control board is expected to decide whether to support Harvard's eviction notice or to honor the store's request for a removal of the rent-controlled status of apartment 209.

HRE President Sally E. Zeckhauser said Harvard does not support Ferranti-Dege's request for a removal permit.