City Council Talks Housing, Epps

Cambridge City Council was deeply divided over a proposed housing development in East Cambridge last night.

The ComEnergy site at Third Street and Broadway, formerly an energy plant, is the site of a proposed 1.4 million-sq. ft. housing, office and entertainment complex, to be built by Lyme Properties, a Cambridge-based development company.

Councillor Timothy J. Toomey Jr. erupted in rage after Vice Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio proposed a resolution asking the Managing Director of Lyme Properties David E. Clem and East Cambridge residents concerned over the development to sit down and talk over the proposal.

The last time the neighbors and the developer sat down to formal talks was last May.

Galluccio's suggestion that the neighbors needed to be more cooperative with the developers angered Toomey, who has been trying to stop the development project from going through at all.

"East Cambridge has not gotten the respect it deserves from either this council or this city," Toomey said.

Furthermore, Toomey argued that it was the developers, not the residents who were refusing to be flexible in rethinking the development.

"The people of East Cambridge wanted to work with the process," Toomey said. "They have been hoodwinked."

In response, Clem claimed he had not been invited to neighborhood meetings, which he said he would have willingly attended.

"We intend to be good neighbors to the people of East Cambridge," Clem said.

Toomey's efforts to block the development have taken the form of a petition that would mandate the development be only 50 percent construction, with the other half of the property reserved for open space--a commodity highly valued in rapidly developing Cambridge.

However, city officials now say that the petition could bring on a lawsuit by the developers because it unfairly "torpedoes" the project.

This is excuse enough for councillors like Galluccio to accept the development as planned, said Robert Winters, a long-time Cambridge resident and observer of the council who has also run for a seat on the body in the past.

In the end, the council voted to adopt a substitute order made by Councillor Katherine Triantafillou asking for professional mediation to be provided by City Manager Robert W. Healy.

Epps Honored, MIT Questioned

In a resolution adopted by the Council unanimously last night, Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III was honored for his accomplishments during his 30-year tenure at Harvard.

Epps, who will step down from his administrative post at the end of this academic year, will continue to serve the College as a senior associate dean.

In particular, the written resolution praised Epps for his role in increasing diversity on campus. The resolution also noted that undergraduate student organizations have tripled in number under his watch.

A copy of the resolution will be sent to Epps on behalf of the council.

In other business, the council heard from Councillor Kathleen L. Born, chair of the housing and community development committee, on MIT's Housing Impact Statement.

Harvard submitted its own statement to the committee earlier this year.

MIT told Cambridge that it plans to build more undergraduate and graduate housing in Cambridge, especially because it has committed to housing all first-years on campus in dorms rather than fraternities.

MIT made this pledge following the 1997 death of MIT first-year Scott M. Krueger, who died of alcohol poisoning after a fraternity hazing incident.

Born also questioned Healy about who would be paying for the extra security needed for Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to MIT tomorrow.

Healy reassured Born that MIT would be paying for the cost of any additional overtime incurred by Cambridge police officers because of the visit.