Allston at a Crossroads

Kathy A. Spiegelman, Harvard’s top planner, stood before a packed room of Allston residents on March 10 and asked them what they would want at a future shopping district at the intersection of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue.

“A hot tub,” one woman shouted out.

Residents laughed, but as Harvard works on a new master plan for its future campus across the Charles River, expectations are high among some residents that the University will take steps to improve the neighborhood.

“Harvard has the resources and the motivation to create a community they want to be in,” says Paul Berkeley, the president of the Allston Civic Association. “They [can] create the atmosphere down there. It’s in their best interest and ours to create the kind of place where we can both coexist happily.”

Last December, Harvard and the Boston Redevelopment Authority released a preliminary plan detailing the community’s priorities for the future development of Allston. That plan, developed by a task force of University officials, Allston residents, and city leaders, calls for the construction of housing units, commercial districts, parks, and a commuter rail.

While the plan is still not in its final version, Harvard is going ahead in soliciting resident input to finalize its vision for the new campus.

According to Spiegelman, who is also the director of the Allston Initiative, Harvard plans to release a draft of its institutional master plan by the end of the academic year, incorporating the guidelines laid out in the neighborhood’s plan.

If the plan is approved by the City of Boston—a process which Spiegelman says can take up to two years—the way will be cleared for construction to begin.

“There are still a lot of community approvals…but you basically establish development rights,” Spiegelman says.

SHOPPING LIST

As part of the process of developing the new master plan, Harvard is holding community meetings every four to six weeks in Allston.

The last meeting on March 10 was dedicated to the development of the intersection of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue—known as Barry’s Corner—just beyond Harvard’s football stadium.

Today, the crossroads is defined by a Dunkin’ Donuts, a 7-11 and two gas stations. But at the meeting, consultants said that a new shopping district could bring together the Allston community and a new campus.

“[It’s] the most obvious place to have an intersection between the University and the community,” said David McGregor, the managing partner of Cooper, Robertson & Partners, the firm hired last June to develop the University’s institutional master plan. “A good way to bring the University and the community together is through retail.”

McGregor and Spiegelman flicked through slides of other Boston-area shopping districts—including Harvard Square and Central Square—in order to prompt the fifty-some residents present to offer suggestions about what would attract people to a new shopping district.

Residents suggested an array of possibilities, including a community center with performing arts space, an indoor baseball field, a community swimming facility, and several businesses.

Spiegelman cautioned that Harvard would not be able to deliver on all the ideas, but residents seem convinced that a redevelopment of the area would be beneficial to the community.

“It’s really becoming the heart of the new vision,” says Tim McHale, a member of the Board of Directors of the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation (CDC). “A smart set of buildings can...attract people.”

Rick Geilfuss, the president of the Allston Brighton Community Theater Foundation, suggested at the meeting that Harvard construct a theater at Barry’s Corner.

“One way or another Harvard is going to do what Harvard wants to do,” he says. “If they’re going to offer to help us we should get as much as we can from them.”

But several community leaders question the need to reconstruct the intersection.

“I think it isn’t particularly attractive but there are neighborhood uses that people use,” says Robert Van Meter, the executive director of the Allston Brighton CDC. “Maintaining the overall neighborhood character is more important than creating a town center feel.”

Ray Mellone, chair of the North Allston Neighborhood Strategic Planning Group, says that “the devil is in the details.”

“The fact of the matter is what will be developed needs to be examined closely,” he says. “I want to see how the process evolves before I make a decision.”

‘THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM’

But any schemes for transforming the area face at least one pitfall—Harvard does not own all the land at Barry’s Corner.

Indeed, one entire section of the intersection is occupied by the 213-unit Charlesview Apartment complex.

Paul Creighton, the director of the Allston Brighton Area Planning Action Council, says the presence of the Charlesview Apartments could delay any progress.

“There’s a housing development right in the middle,” he says. “That place has been there for 35 years. What are they going to do?”

Van Meter says the apartment complex was “the elephant in the room in terms of Harvard’s presentation.”

According to Spiegelman, the University is in “discussions” with the owners of the low-income housing complex to purchase the buildings. In the past, Harvard has proposed building a brand-new complex for the residents elsewhere in Allston.

Last December, tenants in the building complained that they were being left out of negotiations as University officials and Charlesview owners met.

After more than two years of talks, the owners and Harvard have not yet come to a resolution.

AT A CROSSROADS

As discussions about the future of Allston and the fate of Charlesview continue, residents acknowledge that the relationship between the University and the community has come a long way.

When Harvard announced in 1997 that it had used a front company to secretly purchase 52 acres of Allston land, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino told the Boston Globe it was “total arrogance.”

After the anger surrounding the announcement, representatives from Harvard, the city, and the community came together to create the neighborhood plan, known as the North Allston Strategic Framework for Planning, which was released in preliminary form last December after four years of meetings.

On Feb. 22, the Allston Brighton CDC sent a letter to the City of Boston questioning whether the scale of Harvard’s expansion in Allston was too big.

“We are concerned that the overall scale and density that seem to be embedded in the [plan] are not reflective of what the community desires or what will preserve and enhance North Allston’s neighborhood character,” the letter states.

The task force responsible for creating the plan met last week to discuss the CDC’s concerns. Van Meter says the task force recommended to the city that “language be taken out of the document.”

“My sense is that there will be some changes in the form of deletion before it’s made final,” Van Meter says.

He adds that he and other task force members are also concerned that the framework does not include enough information about the construction of affordable housing in the community.

“What we don’t want to happen is see a document receive official legitimacy that doesn’t represent the neighborhood’s views,” Van Meter says. “There are many positive things, but issues of density and scale are fundamental.”

Nevertheless, Harvard can proceed with the development of its master plan even if the neighborhood’s framework is not finalized.

“Technically, we don’t have to have a strategic plan, but it turns out to be a positive thing because it made people think about…issues,” Spiegelman says.

Mellone says the framework should be approved first if Harvard wants its institutional master plan to be supported by the community.

“If Harvard wants to respect the community, whatever they propose has to conform with the guidelines,” he says. “That’s what that purpose is. That has to be finalized.”

But even as the official presentation of the neighborhood plan is held up, residents have expressed optimism that the relationship between Harvard and Allston is improving.

“Up until now there has been an anxiety as to what Harvard is going to do,” Berkeley says. “[People] were concerned that Harvard was purchasing so much land that they would go against residential property, and so far Harvard hasn’t really done that, with a few exceptions.”

And at least one common resident complaint—that Harvard has not presented enough specific information about its expansion plans—might be solved when the new master plan is released.

Spiegelman says the plan “may not specifically show you the design of buildings,” but might outline the dimensions and location of buildings.

McHale says that he thinks there is a “healthy tension” between the community and the University.

“[There’s] a historic skepticism and a genuine kind of anticipation,” he says. “I think it holds new promise.”

—Staff writer Joseph M. Tartakoff can be reached at tartakof@fas.harvard.edu.