Central Square Renovations Permitted Despite Protests

After heated debate, the City of Cambridge's Planning Board granted Holmes Real Estate Trust permission to renovate Central Square.

Holmes Trust applied last fall to build a complex of apartments and shops in Central Square. After the plan was announced, many Cambridge residents protested, forming groups to elicit support from the neighborhood.

Last night's decision gives Holmes Trust the authority to demolish much of the existing Central Square facade, replacing it with a modern residential and commercial structure.

Cambridge residents filled City Hall at last night, selling "SAVE CENTRAL SQUARE" t-shirts and pasting home-made signs declaring "STOP THE LIES" along the elegant room's papered walls. Some citizens who assembled in the crowded chamber last night yelled protests, while others quietly repeated opposition to the plan.

"My father has worked at Surman [clothing store] for 63 years," Karen S. Paley, daughter of Phil Surman, said. "He's in his eighties and still goes to work seven days a week, and now they are forcing him to retire."

Although tenants like Surman may rent space in the building which will be constructed, rents are sure to increase.

"We can't afford that kind of rent," Paley said of leasing with Holmes Trust.

Surman may be just one of many self-employed Cantabrigians forced to retire by the board's decision to grant the permit. But representatives of Holmes Trust and the City of Cambridge say they believe the building will improve the area immensely, both aesthetically and economically.

"I feel good about the change....I think it is a handsome building," said one city planner at the meeting last night. "In my 20 years as a city planner I don't remember a building that so responded to human scale aspects."

Other businesses in Central Square also voiced support for the project.

"I am sure it is in the best interest of everyone...to add a substantial amount to the tax base [and] increase the housing supply," wrote Carl F. Barron, owner of Putnam Furniture Leasing, in a letter to the planning board. "[The building] would add a general upgrading in an area that definitely needs it."

Holmes Trust agreed to reserve 11 of the 72 units in the complex for afford- 1able housing, reported a Holmes spokesperson atthe board meeting yesterday. But Cambridgeresidents at the meeting said they were notpleased with the decision.

When one board member raised a question aboutthe number of trees that will surround thebuilding, an audience member demanded, "inaddition to more trees can we have more affordablehousing?"

The special permit granted by the board lastnight remains conditional, contingent on anongoing review of the prospective building'sdesign

When one board member raised a question aboutthe number of trees that will surround thebuilding, an audience member demanded, "inaddition to more trees can we have more affordablehousing?"

The special permit granted by the board lastnight remains conditional, contingent on anongoing review of the prospective building'sdesign