University To Freeze Property Purchases

After enduring months of community criticism over its “land-banking” practices in Allston, Harvard announced Wednesday that it would be placing a one-year moratorium on new real estate purchases in the neighborhood—but not before it had already signed an agreement to lease and purchase another piece of property near its Science Complex construction site.

According to University spokeswoman Lauren M. Marshall, Harvard will be master leasing the property at 65-79 Seattle St. in Brighton for 10 years, after which Harvard will purchase the parcel unless the owner elects to sell it to the University sooner. She declined to comment on the costs of the lease agreement and said that she did not have figures on hand for the precise total square footage of the lot, but emphasized that no deeds had been conferred at this time.

Supply New England, the plumbing and heating company that currently occupies the site, will remain on site as tenants under the terms of the agreement, which was reached on Dec. 22 and finalized on April 17.

In a letter sent on Wednesday to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino announcing the moratorium, University President Drew G. Faust stated that Harvard’s continued near-term focus will be on “leasing and improvements to properties we currently own and continued dialogue with our Allston neighbors around community engagement and community-wide planning.”

Kevin A. McCluskey ’76, Harvard’s director of community relations for Boston, relayed Faust’s message to neighborhood residents at a North Allston-Brighton Community-Wide Planning Meeting Wednesday evening, where the news was welcomed by City officials and community members. Michael F. Glavin, deputy director of institutional development for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which oversees planning and development projects in the City, said that Faust’s letter represented a “good start to a continuing effort by Harvard to acknowledge the concerns of the neighborhood and to provide us with responses that we feel are appropriate.”

In late December, Harvard stoked community concerns when it acquired another real estate parcel adjacent to the planned site of its relocated Charlesview apartments—although there too the tenant remained on-site. While the University has historically invested in real-estate contiguous to its existing holdings to allow for long-term growth, local residents called on Harvard to improve and lease its existing vacant property holdings in the neighborhood before making further purchases.

Tensions further escalated in February when the University announced that it would slow construction of its much-heralded Allston Science Complex, prompting the Mayor to scribe a sharply-worded letter to Faust listing a set of community concerns that he expected would be addressed in the near future. Among his requests were an inventory of the University’s existing property holdings and their interim uses and a memorandum detailing conditions under which the University could purchase more real estate in the future.

Harry Mattison and Ray Mellone, local residents and members of the Harvard Allston Task Force, said they were not concerned about the recent property acquisition and welcomed the moratorium on real estate acquisition.

“Harvard’s out of money—of course they’re not buying any more property. We’re more concerned with properties right in the core of our community,” Mattison said. “[The recent acquisition] is more of a backwater location, but it does show that Harvard is still thinking way ahead.”

‘SHIFTING GEARS’

While BRA officials had intended to focus largely on street grid and park design in Allston’s Holton Street Corridor at Wednesday night’s Community-Wide Planning meeting, discussions instead turned towards considerations of mixed-income and affordable housing in the future neighborhood, as well as the density and connectivity of the planned residential communities.

Bob Kroin, the BRA’s chief architect, opened the meeting with a PowerPoint presentation detailing a vision of a transformed neighborhood with highlighted green avenues and parks that would connect residential sectors to the Charles River.

He said that the “industrial history of North Allston has left it with major gaps in infrastructure that might otherwise have consolidated connected residential communities,” but that because the Holton Street Corridor is heavily Harvard-owned, it provides an opportunity to conduct “comprehensive planning” for the area west of Barry’s Corner and south of Western Avenue. Barry’s Corner, at the intersection of Western Ave. and North Harvard St., has long been envisioned as a future commercial hub in Allston similar to Harvard Square in Cambridge.

While Kroin focused on various land use scenarios for the Corridor—he considered including a quiet urban park, an athletic field and playground, or both a quiet and active park—residents seemed more concerned in their break-out group discussions about housing ownership patterns in Allston and the plans to relocate the Charlesview apartments to the Corridor.

“People like the idea of streets connecting and more green space, but when we got down to the subtle differences, the conversation went to, ‘What type of housing are we looking for?’” said local resident David McNair, summarizing the discussions that had taken place in his break-out group. “We should first set some guidelines in terms of, ‘Here’s what we expect in terms of housing.’ Then, maybe we’ll know where the park goes,”

Mattison, the task force member and local resident, said he too felt that the discussion of parks had been “way out of sequence,” but that residents had managed to use the meeting to shift the focus of the BRA’s planning “to human beings from grass and asphalt.”

Other neighborhood residents voiced concerns about the density and height of the envisioned commercial development in the area—some suggested that the entire area south of Western Ave. should be made residential—and others questioned whether the neighborhood had a need for more parks, given the existing open spaces in the area and the older age demographics of Allston-Brighton.

Glavin, the BRA’s institutional development director, said he was pleased that Harvard representatives were “taking the time to listen and provide feedback in discussions,” noting that their presence would be “critical to a successful planning effort.” While the University has been criticized in the past by residents for insufficiently engaging in the CWP process, Galvin said he thought that Harvard is now “hearing concerns and responding in a way more specific than in the past.”

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.