With Tens of Millions At Stake, Allston Gears Up to Negotiate With Harvard

Allston is poised to begin high-stakes negotiations with Harvard for tens of millions of dollars in community benefits, as the University prepares to release an initial draft of its second 10-year Institutional Master Plan for its campus across the Charles.

The last IMP, finalized in 2014, saw Harvard commit $43 million in community benefits to Allston to offset the impacts of its rapid expansion in the neighborhood. That commitment — negotiated between University and city officials and a city-appointed resident group called the Harvard Allston Task Force — dwarfed the typical size of community benefits agreements across the city, which usually reach several million at most.

Now, the parties are heading back to the bargaining table to agree on a benefits package which is almost certain to outstrip the $43 million commitment — and neighborhood advocates are assembling their list of demands.

Cindy Marchando, the task force chair, said in an interview on Friday that the group was looking to prioritize affordable housing, supporting artists and small businesses along Western Avenue, and support for replacing Allston’s beleaguered Jackson-Mann Community Center. She said the task force would try to respond to the neighborhood’s rising cost of living and changing demographics.

“Our community has changed over the past 10 years, so have our needs,” she said.

The new IMP, which Harvard previewed in a public meeting in January, only applies to land used for “institutional” purposes. Harvard’s extensive commercial developments in the neighborhood, such as the $750-million Enterprise Research Campus, go through a separate approval process, with their own community benefits.

But the IMP process, which will involve several rounds of negotiations and community feedback, gives residents, city officials, and local leaders an opportunity to influence the direction of Harvard’s developing Lower Allston campus — as well as the shape of the neighborhood itself.

In public comments submitted to the city, local stakeholders have already begun to sketch out their vision for the agreement.

Boston City Councilor Elizabeth A. “Liz” Breadon urged Harvard to build housing for graduate students, highlighting the high demand for current neighborhood housing, exacerbated by a large student population.

Kevin M. Carragee, a member of the Coalition for a Just Allston, proposed that Harvard turn its proposed Gateway Project — a 300,000-square-foot development for retail, administrative, and academic uses — into a much taller, denser, primarily residential development.

Boston’s Office of New Urban Mechanics asked Harvard to join and expand a homeshare program, piloted by the city in 2017, providing graduate students with a room in the residence of older adults looking to downsize.

And in their own public comment letter, the Harvard Allston Task Force said they have some unfinished business from the last IMP to settle with the University.

“We find that an inordinate portion of community benefits, especially those allocated to the Harvard Ed Portal, have been indirectly serving Harvard University and accommodating non-Allston/Brighton residents over the local community,” the group wrote. “Consequently, the benefits intended to uplift the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods have not solely focused on these areas.”

A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment for this article.

In addition to negotiating with residents and neighborhood activists, Harvard faces some political barriers to securing approval for the IMP. It will need to win over two key Allston elected officials: Breadon and State Rep. Michael J. Moran, a longtime critic of the University’s expansion in the neighborhood.

Though their support is not technically make-or-break for the University, major developments and master plans have rarely been approved by the city without support from the district’s representatives, according to a former city hall official.

But Harvard’s extensive personnel ties to Boston’s government may help grease the wheels of the IMP process.

Harvard Executive Vice President Meredith L. Weenick ’90 is the former chief financial officer of Boston. Its director of government affairs, Mark Handley, was the chief of staff to former Allston-Brighton City Councilor Mark Ciommo. And several members of the Planning Department’s leadership hold Harvard degrees, as does Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07, State Rep. Kevin A. Honan, and State Senator William N. Brownsberger ’78.

Marchando said that her approach to the upcoming negotiation will be simple: “My community deserves the best.”

“If there’s one message that can be conveyed,” she said, “do not settle for less.”

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @EmilySchwartz37.

—Staff writer Jack R. Trapanick can be reached at jack.trapanick@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @jackrtrapanick.