Following Preview of Master Plan, Allston Residents Call for New Discussion Forums

Suggesting that existing avenues for community conversations about Harvard’s new Institutional Master Plan for Allston development are insufficient, community members both within and outside the Harvard-Allston Task Force on Monday called for new forums to amplify the voices of residents.

The discussion, which took place at the task force’s biweekly meeting, followed a presentation by Harvard officials previewing their new 10-year master plan, which outlines nine building projects that Harvard hopes to carry out in Allston. A community benefits portion of the master plan will be shaped in part by the task force’s feedback about the neighborhood’s priorities, officials have said.

But task force member Harry E. Mattison, an Allston resident, said the task force’s meeting structure—which he described as one in which officials give a presentation and community members respond in a question-and-answer format—makes it difficult for the task force and community to determine its priorities.

"This ping-pong game format we've been using for years doesn't get us anywhere,” Mattison said, suggesting that community members instead work together to “come up with some unified ideas” and then take them to Harvard or the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Kevin Casey, Harvard’s associate vice president of public affairs and communications, said the master plan, which Harvard intends to file with the Boston city government later this month with hopes of receiving approval in October, was “very much informed” by past conversations with task force members and the community. Yet some residents still expressed concern that they need more opportunities for their voices to be heard in the discussions that are underway.

Thomas M. Lally, an Allston resident, commented from the audience that he thinks community members outside the task force should have a voice in the conversation about community benefits, especially in light of traffic concerns with future construction.

“I still think the community should talk to our task force and say, ‘These are community benefits that we want,’” Lally said, adding that the community benefits will serve as mitigation for the impact Harvard’s development will have on the neighborhood. "The community should decide.”

Task force member Christina L. Marin suggested holding one or more meetings with residents without representatives from the BRA or Harvard present.

"I think we should have a community meeting where we as a community can figure out what we want," Marin said.

In such a meeting, community members suggested that they could discuss how important and widely shared concerns about particular elements of the plan are. During and after the presentation, other residents echoed Lally’s concerns about the impact the construction would have on traffic, and task force member and Allston resident Brent C. Whelan ’73 questioned the location of a parking lot on North Harvard Street.

Despite these critiques, Casey called Monday night’s meeting “constructive.”

“For the task force to ask itself how it wants to interact with Harvard at this important stage and for Harvard to hear that and try to be responsive at this stage of the process is important,” Casey said in an interview after the meeting.

In addition to the building projects and other construction plans for the next decade, the master plan describes Harvard’s long-term vision for Allston and the anticipated impact the development will have on the community. Harris S. Band, Harvard’s senior director of Allston master planning, described the proposed program as “multifaceted” and “significant and ambitious.”

The updated master plan comes after Harvard submitted its Institutional Master Plan Notification Form, an introductory document, to the city last October and received written feedback on the plan in March.

—Staff writer Madeline R. Conway can be reached at mconway@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @MadelineRConway.